(P23-029-25) Diet Quality and Sleep During Pregnancy – A Prospective Study in the nuMoM2b Sleep Cohort

Objectives: Limited research has explored how diet impacts sleep during pregnancy. This study investigated the association between adherence to dietary guidelines and sleep duration and quality among pregnant individuals.

Methods: Data were derived from the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcome Study: Monitoring Mothers-To-Be (nuMoM2b) Sleep Duration and Continuity substudy, which recruited participants during the second study visit (16–21 weeks of gestation) of the parent nuMoM2b study between 2010 and 2013. The Modified Block 2005 Food Frequency Questionnaire was used to assess participants’ diet for the three months prior to pregnancy. To describe diet quality, Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2005 was calculated and categorized into quartiles. Sleep metrics, including actigraphy-derived sleep duration, sleep fragmentation index, sleep efficiency, and wake after sleep onset (WASO), were the primary outcomes, with the latter three providing measures of sleep quality. Insufficient sleep was defined as an average sleep duration of < 7 hours during the main sleep period. Multivariable logistic and linear regressions were conducted to examine associations between HEI and sleep outcomes. A Bonferroni correction was used to account for multiple comparisons in the sleep quality variables.

Results: Excluding participants under 18 years old, 799 participants were included in the final analysis, with a median sleep duration of 7.42 hours and a median HEI score of 64.5. After adjusting for potential confounders including demographic and lifestyle factors, total energy, and caffeine intake, higher HEI scores were significantly associated with lower odds of insufficient sleep. ORs (95% CI) for insufficient sleep across quartiles of HEI, using Q1 as the reference, were as follows: Q2: 0.71 (0.44, 1.15), Q3: 0.58 (0.35, 0.95), and Q4: 0.54 (0.32, 0.89); p-trend = 0.006. No significant associations were observed between HEI and sleep quality variables.

Conclusions: Lower diet quality may be associated with insufficient sleep during pregnancy. Further research is needed to explore potential mechanisms underlying this association.

Funding Sources: None