Insomnia during pregnancy: what are the causes and what to do?

Insom­nia dur­ing preg­nan­cy is a very com­mon prob­lem. There are many rea­sons for insom­nia in expec­tant moth­ers, from changes in the body and activ­i­ty of the baby to a vio­la­tion of the reg­i­men. These are the most fre­quent. When it is uncom­fort­able to sleep, you often have to get up to go to the toi­let, the child kicks, and dur­ing the day you man­age to grab an hour and take a nap, sac­ri­fic­ing a walk — the rea­sons for sleep dis­tur­bance are obvi­ous. But there are also anx­i­ety, ner­vous­ness, not allow­ing sleep. What to do about insom­nia dur­ing preg­nan­cy?

Is it dan­ger­ous for expec­tant moth­ers to sleep bad­ly at all?

Lack of sleep dur­ing preg­nan­cy is even more dan­ger­ous than with­out preg­nan­cy. In addi­tion to fatigue and poor health, insom­nia dur­ing preg­nan­cy can cause depres­sive dis­or­ders, includ­ing depres­sion after child­birth.

But that’s not all. Stud­ies in 2018 and 2019 showed that there is a clear link between sleep dis­or­ders and the devel­op­ment of ges­ta­tion­al dia­betes in preg­nant women.

So, if you sleep less than five hours or more than ten, then the risks increase. And if lack of sleep can serve as a provo­ca­teur of dia­betes, involv­ing the body in a series of endocrine dis­or­ders, then exces­sive sleep is con­sid­ered a pre­dic­tor of the dis­ease: drowsi­ness indi­cates its onset.

But almost every­one does not sleep well. Espe­cial­ly preg­nant women in the third trimester suf­fer from sleep dis­or­ders, and the rea­sons are both in phys­i­ol­o­gy and in the emo­tion­al sphere. And most often affects sleep all togeth­er. What to do?

Basic ways to improve sleep

Here is a check­list: what can inter­fere with sleep?

• Uncom­fort­able pos­ture: the stom­ach is big, the back hurts, the legs swell … Check how you sleep. The best option is on the right and left sides with a pil­low between the knees. If you often toss and turn, it is appro­pri­ate to take two pil­lows or use a spe­cial long ver­sion for expec­tant moth­ers — it is con­ve­nient to place the tum­my on it. If you put it under the arm that is on top, part of the load is removed from the spine.
• Not enough fresh air and high tem­per­a­ture in the bed­room are the ene­mies of healthy sleep. Espe­cial­ly for preg­nant women: due to hor­mon­al changes and an enlarged uterus, it is dif­fi­cult to breathe, sweat­ing is increased. Check how you breathe at night, open a win­dow, change your blan­ket.
• How much do you sleep in total? This is an impor­tant ques­tion. It may be that a woman rests dur­ing the day, doz­ing off for 15–20 min­utes a cou­ple of times, or even arranges a day­time sleep. If this is your option, then most like­ly it is not about insom­nia, but about a shift­ed mode. In this case, you should not wait for a long and sound night’s sleep, but if the rest suits you, fill it up dur­ing the day. Just try to get up no lat­er than 4 pm.
• Try not to read dis­turb­ing news before bed and gen­er­al­ly stay away from gad­gets. Bet­ter a warm show­er or foot bath, self-mas­sage and oth­er relax­ation meth­ods than var­i­ous forums or study­ing pos­si­ble com­pli­ca­tions. If anx­i­ety con­tin­ues to rise and keep you awake, see a spe­cial­ist. This is a com­mon preg­nan­cy prob­lem for which there are solu­tions.

Insom­nia med­ica­tions

In gen­er­al, preg­nant women are not allowed to use most sleep­ing pills. An excep­tion is some herbal teas, which you should not get car­ried away with either (mint, which is often includ­ed in such teas, is espe­cial­ly dan­ger­ous). Look at those sets of herbs that can be used in young chil­dren, if nec­es­sary, you can resort to them one-time.

Sleep med­ica­tions are pre­scribed only by a doc­tor. Do not take risks and go to the phar­ma­cy.

Anoth­er pop­u­lar ques­tion is whether mela­tonin can be used for insom­nia dur­ing preg­nan­cy? Although there are many stud­ies on the ben­e­fits of mela­tonin dur­ing ges­ta­tion, they were con­duct­ed on ani­mals and were not asso­ci­at­ed with sleep. But the opin­ion of doc­tors is this: if it is pos­si­ble to do with­out it, then it is bet­ter to do so. If there is a clear need, then you can use a dosage of 0.2 grams per hour before bed­time.