Sleep Disorders

Severe Sleep Disruption Common Among First-Time Mothers Postpartum

Jessica Nye, PhD
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Publish Date
In the first week after giving birth, new mothers averaged 4.4 hours of sleep duration, compared with 7.8 hours during prepregnancy.

During the initial postpartum week, sleep duration is greatly reduced, but gradually returns to baseline levels, according to study results presented at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, held from June 7 to 11 in Seattle, Washington.

It is well-established that maternal sleep is disrupted in postpartum, however, the severity of the disruption to sleep has not been adequately quantified.

Researchers from Rush University Medical Center and Washington State University in the United States recruited first-time mothers (N=41) aged 26 to 43 years. The mothers provided personal Fitbit sleep data from the year prior to childbirth and the first year after giving birth. The longest stretch of sleep (LSS) and daily sleep duration for every 24-hour period were compared between the first 13 weeks postpartum to the preconception period.

At baseline, the women had an average sleep duration of 7.8 hours a day, with an LSS of 5.6 hours. In the first week postpartum, their sleep duration decreased to 4.4 hours a day, with an LSS of 2.2 hours.

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Sleep discontinuity may be a risk factor and intervention target for postpartum depression and other postpartum-related health issues.

Nearly a third of new mothers (31.7%) went more than 24 hours with no sleep during the first week.

In postpartum weeks 2 to 7, sleep duration increased to 6.7 hours and LSS to 3.2 hours. In postpartum weeks 8 to 13, sleep duration increased to 7.3 hours but LSS remained reduced, at 4.1 hours.

All pairwise comparisons with preconception sleep were significant (all F >29.8; all P <.001).

This study was limited by the small sample size.

“This suggests that in postpartum weeks 2-13, sleep discontinuity – more so than sleep loss – contributed most prominently to first-time mothers’ sleep disruption. Sleep discontinuity may be a risk factor and intervention target for postpartum depression and other postpartum-related health issues,” the researchers concluded.

Disclosure: This research was supported by trackthatsleep LLC. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures

References:

Lillis T, Hansen D, Van Dongen H. Profound postpartum sleep discontinuity in first-time mothers. Abstract presented at: SLEEP 2025; June 7-11, 2025; Seattle, WA. Abstract 0915.