Sleep Quality Predicts Persistence of Parental Postpartum Depressive Symptoms and Transmission of Depressive Symptoms from Mothers to Fathers

Aug 6, 2016Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine

Poor Sleep Links to Ongoing Postpartum Depression in Parents and Mothers' Depression Spreading to Fathers

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Abstract

Depressive symptoms at 1 month postpartum predicted sleep quality at 6 months in both partnered mothers and fathers.

Sleep quality at 6 months postpartum is associated with depressive symptoms at both 6 and 12 months postpartum.
Postpartum sleep difficulties may contribute to a cycle of persistent depression following childbirth.
Maternal sleep quality is linked to paternal depressive symptoms at both 6 and 12 months postpartum.
Couples' sleep quality and depressive symptoms are correlated, indicating an interaction between partners.

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BACKGROUND: Early parenthood is a time of chronic sleep disturbance and also of heightened depression risk. Poor sleep quality has been identified both as a predictor of postpartum depressive symptoms and as a consequence.

PURPOSE: This study sought to clarify causal pathways linking sleep and postpartum depression via longitudinal path modeling. Sleep quality at 6 months postpartum was hypothesized to exacerbate depressive symptoms from 1 month through 1 year postpartum in both mothers and fathers. Within-couple associations between sleep and depression were also tested.

METHODS: Data were drawn from a low-income, racially and ethnically diverse sample of 711 couples recruited after the birth of a child. Depressive symptoms were assessed at 1, 6, and 12 months postpartum, and sleep was assessed at 6 months postpartum.

RESULTS: For both partnered mothers and fathers and for single mothers, depressive symptoms at 1 month postpartum predicted sleep quality at 6 months, which in turn predicted depressive symptoms at both 6 and 12 months. Results held when infant birth weight, breastfeeding status, and parents' race/ethnicity, poverty, education, and immigration status were controlled. Mothers' and fathers' sleep quality and depressive symptoms were correlated, and maternal sleep quality predicted paternal depressive symptoms both at 6 and at 12 months.

CONCLUSIONS: Postpartum sleep difficulties may contribute to a vicious cycle between sleep and the persistence of depression after the birth of a child. Sleep problems may also contribute to the transmission of depression within a couple. Psychoeducation and behavioral treatments to improve sleep may benefit new parents.

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Sleep Quality Predicts Persistence of Parental Postpartum Depressive Symptoms and Transmission of Depressive Symptoms from Mothers to Fathers

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