Maternal short sleep duration is associated with increased levels of inflammatory markers at 3 years postpartum

The purpose of this study was to examine the association of short sleep duration among women in the first year postpartum with inflammation at 3 years postpartum. We studied 479 women in Project Viva, a prospective cohort. At 6 months and 1 year postpartum, women reported the number of hours they slept in a 24-hour period, from which we calculated a weighted average of daily sleep. We used multivariable median regression analyses to predict the independent effects of short sleep duration (≤5 vs >5 h/d) on markers of inflammation, for example, interleukin 6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein at 3 years postpartum. Women's mean (SD) hours of daily sleep in the first year postpartum was 6.7 (0.96) hours. After adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, education, parity, pre-pregnancy body mass index, excessive gestational weight gain, and gestational age at delivery, we found that postpartum sleep ≤5 h/d was associated with elevated IL-6 (β, 0.25 pg/mL; 95% confidence interval, 0.14-0.43) compared with >5 h/d. Although postpartum sleep ≤5 h/d appeared to also be associated with elevated C-reactive protein (β 0.15 mg/dL; 95% confidence interval, −0.08 to 0.52), these results did not reach statistical significance. Short sleep duration in the first year postpartum is associated with elevated levels of the proinflammatory marker, IL-6, at 3 years postpartum.