1978-LB: Sleep Duration during Pregnancy and Cardiometabolic Biomarkers—A Multiracial Pregnancy Cohort

Introduction & Objectives: Adequate sleep is crucial for maintaining cardiometabolic health, yet its association with cardiometabolic biomarkers during pregnancy remains unclear and inconclusive.

Methods: The study was based on data from a case-control study (N=321) nested in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Fetal Growth Studies-Singleton Cohort (N=2802). Sleep durations were longitudinally assessed by standard questionnaires from early pregnancy through delivery (visit 0: 8-13 gestational weeks (GWs), visit 1: 16-22 GWs, visit 2: 24-29, and visit 4: 34-37 GWs) and categorized into three groups (≤ 6 hours, 7-8 hours, ≥ 9 hours). Plasma cardiometabolic biomarkers, including glucose, insulin, HbA1c, C-peptide, HOMA-IR and C-reactive protein, were measured at the four study visits. Linear mixed models, incorporating both weight and paired stratum, were adopted to estimate associations between sleep duration and cardiometabolic biomarkers, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results: The proportion of participants with sleep duration ≤ 6 hours increased from 15.1% at study visit 0 to 39.6% at visit 4. At study visit 0, women who slept less than 6 hours had higher HbA1c levels than those who slept longer (β = 0.033, 95% CI=0.008, 0.056). Sleep duration ≥ 9 hours at visit 1 was positively associated to insulin level (β =0.208, 95% CI=0.002, 0.415). Besides, compared with sleep 7-8 hours, sleep duration ≥ 9 hours at study visit 2 was significantly and inversely associated with HbA1c, with β= -0.037 (95% CI= -0.070, -0.004), whereas positive association of sleep duration ≤ 6 hours with glucose level was observed at visit 2 (β = 0.153, 95% CI=0.027, 0.279).

Conclusion: Our findings highlight positive associations between less sleep duration and cardiometabolic biomarkers such as glucose and HbA1c at early-mid pregnancy. An adequate sleep may be essential for maintaining cardiometabolic health among pregnant individuals.