New research shows that poor sleep in pregnant women during the third trimester can impact their newborns' weight and metabolism during adulthood.
Researchers examined pregnant mice for the study. They disrupted sleep of half of the mice during days 15 through 19 of pregnancy, which is equivalent to the third trimester. The researchers swept a motorized brush through the cages every two minutes to keep the mice from sleeping soundly through the night.
The research team stated that for some women, sleep fragmentation, especially sleep apnea, can be intense. "We wanted to devise a system that enabled us to measure the potential impact of fragmented sleep on the fetus, which is uniquely susceptible so early in life."
"For several weeks after weaning all the mice seemed fine," said study director David Gozal in a news release. "But after 16 to 18 weeks - the mouse equivalent of early middle age - we noticed that the male mice born to moms with fragmented sleep were eating more. Their weights started creeping up."
Researchers said that the newborns in both groups weighed the same initially, with normal feeding habits. However, they found consequences of lack of proper sleep later in life.
According to the study findings, a 10 percent of increase in obesity - about 15 extra pounds in humans - was found among the offspring whose mothers did not get good quality of sleep.
Furthermore, the researchers found that these offspring from sleep-deprived mothers scored poorly on glucose-tolerance tests and had disproportionately high amounts of visceral white adipose tissue and their fat cells produced less adiponectin, which is usually a "beneficial hormone."
The findings are published in the journal Diabetes.
