Do pregnant women need more sleep

Sleep and Pregnancy - familydoctor.org

The amount of sleep you get while you’re pregnant not only affects you and your baby but could impact your labor and delivery as well. Lack of sleep during pregnancy has been tied to a number of complications, including preeclampsia (a serious condition that affects your blood pressure and kidneys). This condition could result in pre-mature birth. Now is the time to take sleep seriously.

When you become pregnant, one of the first symptoms you may notice is being overwhelmingly tired, even exhausted. Sleep will be irresistible to you. You can most likely blame your changing hormones for this, especially the extra progesterone that comes with being pregnant. In the beginning, pregnancy also lowers your blood pressure and blood sugar, which can make you feel tired.

Shortly after the first trimester, your energy should return. Sometime during the third trimester, you’ll begin to feel tired again. Some of this feeling can be blamed on the sheer physical exhaustion that comes from growing a baby and the stress that it puts on your body. However, your weariness during this time is in direct relation to your inability to get a good night’s sleep.

Even if you’ve never had trouble sleeping before, you may find it much more difficult while you’re pregnant.

Path to improved health

Sleep should never be seen as a luxury. It’s a necessity — especially when you’re pregnant.

In fact, women who are pregnant need a few more hours of sleep each night or should supplement nighttime sleep with naps during the day, according to the National Institutes of Health.

For many pregnant women, getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night becomes more difficult the farther along they are in their pregnancy. There are many physical and emotional obstacles to sleep in this stage. Anxiety about being a mom or about adding to your family can keep you awake. Fear of the unknown or about the delivery can cause insomnia. Plus, there is the getting up every few hours to go to the bathroom. It also can be difficult to find a comfortable position in bed, especially if you are a former stomach sleeper.

If any of the following is keeping you awake at night, try these strategies for getting a good night’s sleep.

Heartburn

At some point in their pregnancy, most pregnant women suffer from heartburn, which is a form of indigestion that feels like burning in your chest and throat. Heartburn can wake you up in the middle of the night and ruin a good sleep. Minimize the chance for this by avoiding spicy foods. Also, cut down on rich foods for dinner and late-night meals.

Restless leg syndrome

Few things are more distracting than restless legs syndrome (RLS), especially when you are trying to go to sleep. While you can’t take traditional RLS medicines when you are pregnant, you can try to reduce the feelings of RLS with a good prenatal vitamin that includes folate and iron. You should also stretch and stay hydrated.

Morning sickness — at bedtime

Despite the name, morning sickness can occur any time and is often worse later in the day. Try eating a few crackers at bedtime and keep a stash in your nightstand in case a wave of nausea hits as you are trying to go to sleep.

Insomnia

There are many ways insomnia can creep in and compromise your sleep time. Often, it’s just about being able to shut down your brain. Ask you doctor if there are any safe medications that may help with sleep. Most medicines for insomnia should not be taken while you are pregnant. Instead, try journaling some of the things you are anxious about. Write down what is stressing you and try to let it go as you go to sleep. Also, stop drinking caffeine by early afternoon. Try not to take long naps during the day. Doing any — or all — of these things can help ease you back into sleep at a reasonable bedtime.

Leg cramps

Not many things can wake you as quickly and painfully as a leg cramp. Sometimes called a charley horse, these cramps are usually a contraction of your calf muscle. Less frequently, they can occur in your thigh or your foot. These can plague you in pregnancy because of a lack of minerals, especially calcium and magnesium. They also are more common if you are dehydrated. To guard against leg cramps, make sure that you continue to take your prenatal vitamin and drink plenty of water and other fluids during the day.

Finding a comfortable position

As your body grows, sleep becomes a little harder to come by, especially in the third trimester. It’s difficult to get comfortable. It’s harder to move around and shift positions in bed. If you’ve been a stomach or back sleeper, it can be hard to adjust to sleeping on your side. The best position to sleep in when you’re pregnant is on your left side. This improves blood flow and, therefore, nutrient flow to your baby. Try lying on your left side, knees bent with a pillow between your knees. It also helps to tuck a pillow under your stomach, as well, for extra support.

Frequent bathroom breaks

With the baby pushing down on your bladder, you likely can’t make it all night without waking at least once to go to the bathroom. You can help minimize nighttime bathroom trips by cutting down on how much you drink in the evenings. Just be sure to get adequate hydration during the day. Bright lights can make it harder for you to fall back asleep, so use nightlights so that you will not need to turn on the lights when you get up to go to the bathroom.

In addition to minimizing the common obstacles to getting a good night’s sleep, there are also ways to encourage good sleep habits. This is called good sleep hygiene.

Be consistent with your sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
Prioritize sleep. It’s one of the healthiest things you can do for your body.
Exercise, but do not exercise at bedtime.
Keep daytime naps short.
Stick to a bedtime routine that relaxes you, and don’t vary from it.
Make your bedroom inviting. Do not keep a TV, computer, or other distracting tech gadgets in your bedroom.
Do not eat at bedtime. Finish eating two to three hours before going to bed.

Things to consider

Sleep is essential to health. Lack of sleep is associated with many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, depression, and even heart disease. If you’re pregnant, not getting an adequate amount of sleep can put you at risk for some serious conditions. Lack of sleep can also complicate your delivery.

In one research study, pregnant women who slept less than six hours at night late in pregnancy had longer labors and were more likely to have cesarean deliveries.

Another study reports that the sleep you get in your first trimester can affect your health in the third trimester. Women who don’t get enough sleep (less than five hours per night) in the first trimester are nearly 10 times more likely to develop preeclampsia late in pregnancy. Preeclampsia is a condition associated with pregnancy-related high blood pressure, swelling of hands and feet, and protein in urine.

If you’ve ever had a sleep disorder, it could be made worse by pregnancy. If you’ve had sleep apnea in the past, your snoring may get worse during pregnancy. This is especially true if you were already overweight when you became pregnant. Expect that RLS will worsen during this time. Heartburn will intensify, too.

When to see a doctor

If insomnia, sleep apnea, or any other condition is interfering with your sleep, tell your doctor. Lack of sleep during pregnancy has been liked to high blood pressure (hypertension), preeclampsia, pre-term birth, and other pregnancy-related complications.

Many times, there are no symptoms that alert you when your blood pressure is elevated. Your doctor will check your blood pressure at your prenatal visits, but if you have a severe headache or swelling of your hands, ankles, and feet, contact your doctor.

Symptoms of preeclampsia include:

Severe headach
Changes in vision, including blurred vision
Nausea or vomiting
Not urinating as frequently
Shortness of breath
Pain in your upper abdomen on the right side

Questions to ask your doctor

How can I get through my day when I’m tired all the time?
Is there anything I can take for heartburn?
Is sleeping on my back unsafe for my baby?
Does exercise improve sleep quality?
Is it normal to snore during pregnancy?
Are there over-the-counter sleep medications or supplements that are OK to use during pregnancy?
Are there foods I should or should not eat that will help my sleeping?

Resources

National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: How much sleep do I need?

National Institutes of Health, MedlinePlus: Problems sleeping during pregnancy

Get a Good Night's Sleep During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a magical time in many ways, but your sleep schedule during these nine months might be less than dreamy. The growing belly, the aches, the pains, the heartburn — many women experience sleepless nights long before there’s a hungry, crying infant in the picture.

Having trouble sleeping is common during pregnancy, says Grace Pien, M.D., M.S.C.E. , assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center . A growing belly, pressure on the diaphragm, increased urinary frequency, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and restless legs syndrome (RLS) are just a few of the hurdles standing between you and a restful night.

Changes can begin as early as the first trimester, when women feel drowsier than normal due to a spike in progesterone, a hormone made by the ovaries and the placenta during pregnancy. The second trimester often brings some relief, says Pien. But by the third trimester, it can become hard to find a comfortable sleeping position. At this stage, high levels of estrogen can also cause some women to develop rhinitis (swelling of the nasal tissue), which can be associated with snoring and obstructive sleep apnea .

How Lack of Sleep Affects Pregnancy

Lack of sleep is more than an inconvenience. New research suggests that women who don’t get enough sleep during pregnancy may have higher risks of developing pregnancy complications including:

Preeclampsia, or high blood pressure
Gestational diabetes
Longer labors and higher rates of cesarean section , particularly among women who get fewer than six hours of sleep over the course of 24 hours

Restless Legs Syndrome and Pregnancy

Restless legs syndrome (RLS), an uncontrollable urge to move the legs while at rest, is usually associated with older adults. But it’s also one of the most common reasons for sleeplessness during pregnancy.

RLS typically occurs in the evening, often when you get into bed. Though it’s uncomfortable, there is a silver lining: It doesn’t last forever. “It does get better after delivery and actually pretty quickly, within the first week or so,” Pien says.

RLS is often linked to anemia , which is common in pregnant women. Talk to your doctor about taking prenatal vitamins and supplements, such as folic acid and iron, to keep anemia under control.

How to Get Enough Rest While Pregnant

You’ll probably endure plenty of sleepless nights once the baby arrives, so it’s important to get enough sleep while you can. For occasional help, over-the-counter remedies containing diphenhydramine are fairly safe, Pien says.

For more chronic sleep problems, lifestyle changes like abandoning television and electronics before bed are helpful. Pregnant women should not underestimate the effect of stress on their sleep. Stress reduction techniques are essential.

“It's clearly a time when there are a lot of biological changes going on, but, in addition, expectant parents may be moving homes or just trying to figure out what they’re going to do after the baby is born,” Pien says. “There can be a lot of other stressors, and sometimes the first chance that people get to think about it is when the lights go out. ”

She suggests making to-do lists for the next day before bedtime to avoid taking stress to bed with you.

Once the baby comes, make sure to prioritize sleep, even though your lifestyle will change.

“People are going to want to come over, but don’t worry so much about making sure that the house is clean and all of that,” she says. “Set priorities around getting enough sleep, and know that it’s going to take a few months.”

How to sleep during pregnancy

It is difficult to overestimate the role of sleep in the life of every person. A complete healthy rest allows you to fully restore the functioning of the nervous system, relieve stress, improve performance and increase activity. Chronic sleep deprivation is the cause of many diseases. What can we say about a woman who is at the stage of bearing a baby. During this period, more than ever, she needs a healthy, long and full sleep. However, unfortunately, it is during this period that one can only dream of a restful sleep.

As soon as a woman finds out about her new position, she has to give up a lot for the sake of the health of her unborn baby. And you need to give up not only bad habits: alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, but also from a comfortable sleep.

The cause of insomnia can be :

Anxiety;
Frequent urination;
Fears and phobias before a new stage of one's life;
Nervousness and irritability;
Digestive disorder;
Toxicosis;
Physical indisposition;
Uncomfortable posture.

During the period of bearing a child, the female body experiences an extraordinary load, especially in the last trimester. The need for more sleep increases, because the body expends much more energy. Therefore, healthy sleep and pregnancy are inextricably linked.

Let's try to figure out how to sleep during pregnancy, so as not only not to harm the health of your unborn baby, but to sleep well.

Looking for a comfortable sleeping position

Each person has his own favorite position, in which it is easy to fall asleep and sleep. Many do not imagine a comfortable rest on their backs, accustomed to sleeping on their stomachs. This habit will have to be sacrificed, as it is unsafe for the normal development of the fetus. If in the first three months of pregnancy a woman can still sleep in the position in which she is used to and feels comfortable, then after the first trimester the growing belly will not allow her to lie safely in this position. Despite the natural protection of the baby in the form of amniotic fluid, there is a high probability of injuring the baby in a dream, squeezing it. But what is the right way to sleep during pregnancy?

Back position

Even if you are used to sleeping in a Spartan position, on your back, with your arms spread wide, from the 28th week you will have to radically change your lifestyle. The fact is that as the fetus grows, the load on the intestines and vena cava will increase significantly, blocking the access of oxygen to the baby.

If you sleep on your back during pregnancy, you may experience the following problems:

Dizziness;
Nausea;
Convulsions;
Numb limbs;
Pressure reduction;
Hemorrhoids;
Heaviness of breathing.

If you feel these symptoms or the baby gives persistent signals, you need to urgently change your position, so squeezing the vena cava is fraught not only with poor health for the mother, but also with a lack of oxygen supply to the fetus.

Stomach position

One of the most beloved positions for many people, which allows you to quickly fall asleep while hugging a pillow. Many women, as soon as they find out about the change in their lives, are interested in the question, is it possible to sleep on your stomach during pregnancy? Doctors recommend abandoning this position already in the first weeks, even before the enlarged belly makes it impossible to fall asleep peacefully.

If you are afraid during sleep, without controlling your movements, to arbitrarily roll over on your stomach, you can put a large pillow that does not allow you to change position.

Side position

In order to normalize your sleep and not harm the health of the baby, experts recommend sleeping on your side during pregnancy. And if at first this option seems unacceptable to many, after the second trimester, lying on your side is the only possible one. But here the question arises, on which side to sleep in order to ensure the safety of the fetus?

Sleeping on the right side can cause squeezing of the kidney, which can have dire consequences. The ideal posture is lying on the left side. Thus, you not only do not injure the unborn baby, but also improve blood flow along with oxygen to the placenta.

But one should not ignore the individual characteristics of each organism and the position of the fetus in the uterus. When the baby is in a transverse position, choose the side where the baby's head is. And with a breech presentation, doctors recommend changing the position several times a night.

If you still cannot improve your sleep, you feel unwell and you are tormented by insomnia, then it is better to consult a specialist. A good gynecologist will analyze the situation and help solve the problem. If necessary, he will prescribe a safe sedative that stabilizes the emotional state and helps to fall asleep calmly, resting and restoring the nervous system in a dream.

Help pillow

Fortunately, now modern manufacturers help women survive the pregnancy period with great comfort by offering special pillows. They are made taking into account the physiological characteristics of a woman in this period and allow you to find a comfortable position for relaxation.

You can buy two pillows and put one under your stomach and the other under your knees, looking for your best option. And you can buy a long banana-shaped pillow, which allows you to throw your leg on it while sleeping, which improves well-being and relieves the main load from the lower back and abdomen. Already in the last weeks of pregnancy, when the growing belly does not allow you to breathe normally, the pillow will allow you to take a comfortable half-sitting position.

Remember that pregnancy is your opportunity to gain strength and fully relax before the most crucial period in your life. Childbirth and the first weeks of caring for your baby will require a lot of energy from you, so good luck and sound sleep!

Why pregnant women don't get enough sleep | Shchotizhnevik PHARMACY

Pregnancy is a difficult period for the female body. Physical discomfort and emotional stress can lead to sleep disturbances such as waking up in the middle of the night. Fatigue is a common complaint among women in the first and third trimesters of pregnancy, said Kathy Lee, professor of nursing at the University of California, USA. At this time, you should be especially attentive to your need for healthy sleep.

Everyone knows the expression that a pregnant woman should "eat for two", in scientific circles there is an opinion that she should also "sleep for two". Pregnancy can affect not only the duration of sleep, but also its quality. Since falling asleep can be difficult during this period, experts recommend that pregnant women spend at least 8 hours in bed to get at least 7 hours of sleep.

Scientists have found that sleep deprivation during pregnancy can lead to fatigue, irritability and impaired concentration. A scientific study found that women who experienced sleep deprivation during their first pregnancy were 4.5 times more likely to have a caesarean section than pregnant women who slept at least 7 hours a day. The average duration of labor among pregnant women with sleep deprivation was 10 hours or more, and for women with sufficient sleep duration - 7 hours.

Pregnant women should go to bed earlier as their bodies need extra rest, the scientists noted. Carrying a child requires an extreme expenditure of energy. The growth of the fetus and placenta is provided by the resources of the female body, which can lead to fatigue. In addition, one of the causes of fatigue is emotional worries about future motherhood and childbirth.

Sleep disturbances can occur at different stages of pregnancy. Some of them can be prevented by following simple recommendations from scientists.

I trimester of pregnancy. In the first months after conception, the level of progesterone rises sharply, which not only leads to a feeling of drowsiness, but can also cause frequent urination, disrupting nighttime sleep and making it difficult to fall asleep. To cope with this problem, scientists recommend reducing the amount of liquid consumed in the evenings. It is best to replenish the water balance in the body in the first half of the day so that the urge to go to the toilet does not interfere with sleep at night.

Another factor in sleep disturbance during pregnancy is nausea, which can occur at any time of the day. To prevent its occurrence in the morning, immediately after waking up, you should eat a few crackers or crackers, scientists say.

For healthy sleep, it is important to choose the right posture. A pregnant woman may experience discomfort and soreness in the area of the mammary glands, so you should abandon the idea of sleeping on your stomach.

The acceleration of metabolic processes can lead to an increase in body temperature during sleep in pregnant women. In this case, adjust the temperature in the bedroom accordingly. If a pregnant woman did not manage to sleep during the night, she should definitely take a nap in the daytime, the scientists noted.

II trimester of pregnancy. At this time, a pregnant woman may feel better than in previous months, as the pace of change slows down somewhat. But during this period, leg cramps may occur at night, especially in people with anemia. Often the only way to relieve discomfort in the legs is walking, but this interferes with sleep.

The fetus grows and over time can press on the stomach, sometimes leading to heartburn. In this case, scientists recommend that pregnant women sleep on their left side with bent knees, and also position their heads as high as possible.

III trimester of pregnancy. Many women report that in the last months of pregnancy, the quality of their sleep deteriorates, they wake up more often at night and in the morning, and fall asleep worse than in the second trimester. The woman's belly increases, and the fetus becomes more active, so pregnant women are advised to choose a comfortable sleeping position. But at the same time, you should not sleep on your back, since a heavy fetus can put pressure on large veins and nerves in the spine. Experts recommend sleeping on your left side during this period and using pillows. For increased comfort, they can be placed between the knees, under the stomach and behind the back.