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Sleep hygiene education program during pregnancy: a prospective randomized controlled study

  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Pregnancy-related psychophysiological changes are associated with the sleep alterations as the gestational weeks progress. The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of sleep hygiene education programs during pregnancy.

Methods

This prospective randomized controlled study based on pre–post-test after intervention consists of 30 studies and 30 control groups. Pregnant descriptive form, Beck Depression Index (BDI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and sleep hygiene index (SHI) questionnaires were used. Pregnant women with a score of 15 and above according to BDI were excluded from the study due to depression. Following the application of PSQI and SHI as a pretest, a sleep hygiene training program was applied to the intervention group twice with an interval of 15 days, and PSQI and SHI surveys were repeated as a posttest at the end of 1 month. End points with prespecified hypotheses were changes in sleep quality in different trimesters during antenatal follow-up (primary end point) and changes in sleep quality after the sleep hygiene education intervention from randomization to the end of the intervention period (secondary end point).

Results

90% of all pregnant women had poor sleep quality in the pre-test, and 93.3% in the post-test. In the intervention group, the pre-test PSQI score was 8.10 ± 1.80 and the post-test PSQI score was 8.37 ± 2.05 (p < 0.001). In the control group, the pre-test PSQI score was 8.23 ± 2.54 and the post-test PSQI score was 9.77 ± 2.54, and the worsening of sleep quality became more evident (p < 0.05). While the SHI in intervention group was 16.57 ± 5.64 in the pre-test, it was 10.30 ± 3.78 in the post-test after sleep hygiene training (p < 0.001). In the control group, the pre-test SHI scores increased from 14.50 ± 3.78 to the post-test scores of 16.60 ± 4.36, resulting in a decline in sleep hygiene and sleep quality (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

As the gestational week progressed, the deterioration in sleep quality increased. The poor sleep quality improved significantly after sleep hygiene education counseling. It is recommended to add sleep-related screenings to routine pregnancy follow-ups and to provide sleep hygiene education.

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Data availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants or other support was received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Giresun University School of Medicine, Giresun, Turkey

    Nurdane Turkmen, Arzu Ayraler & Hulya Akan

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Giresun University School of Medicine, Giresun, Turkey

    Sebnem Alanya Tosun

  3. Department of Family Medicine, Medipol University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

    Hulya Akan

  4. Giresun Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Dekanlığı, Kadın Hastalıkları Ve Doğum Anabilim Dalı Sekreterliği, Gazipaşa Yerleşkesi, 28100, Giresun, Turkey

    Sebnem Alanya Tosun

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  1. Nurdane Turkmen
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  3. Arzu Ayraler
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  4. Hulya Akan
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Contributions

NT, SAT and HA contributed to the study design and interpretation of the data. NT, SAT and AA contributed to the collection of data. SAT and HA contributed to the drafting and revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebnem Alanya Tosun.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conficts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethical approval

The study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Gümüşhane University Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee, dated 14.04.2021 and numbered 2021/3.

Informed consent

Written informed consents were obtained from all participants before the recruitment to the study.

Ethical approval

The study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Gümüşhane University Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee, dated 14.04.2021 and numbered 2021/3.

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Turkmen, N., Alanya Tosun, S., Ayraler, A. et al. Sleep hygiene education program during pregnancy: a prospective randomized controlled study. Arch Gynecol Obstet (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-024-07471-9

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