To investigate the causes that postpartum women most mention for changes in sleep pattern and its associations with obstetric and sleep variables and depressive symptoms.

At three months postpartum 192 women fill in a booklet containing obstetric and sleep variables and the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS; Pereira et al., 2010). If they experienced changes in their sleep pattern, they were asked about the perceived cause(s) (multiple choice). Chi-squared and Student t tests were applied as appropriate.

A total of 64.6% women referred to some cause(s); the most mentioned were feeding/baby care and older children care (32.3%) and worries (baby and life problems related) (29.5%). Women who mentioned feeding/baby and older children care as a cause did not significantly differ in relation to type of delivery, feeding method proportions and in PDSS mean scores. Women who identified worries as a cause vs. women who did not – presented significant differences in proportions of vaginal (20.0%) vs. assisted delivery (52.2%) (OR 4.444), caesarean-section (22.2%) vs. assisted delivery (52.6%) (OR 3.827), in breast-feeding (36.0%) vs. bottle-feeding (12.9%) (OR .263) and in “having trouble sleeping even when the baby is asleep” (28.0% vs. 2.9%) (OR 12.833) (all P<.05). PDSS mean scores were also significantly higher in women who mentioned worries as a cause (50.20 ± 20.622 vs. 58.640 ± 15.766, P < 0.05).

It is important to distinguish the causes for changes in sleep pattern in postpartum women. Worries as a perceived cause have a higher impact and clinical significance than causes related to baby care demands.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.