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Sleep is highly disrupted during pregnancy and the postpartum period. This disruption may be an important contributor to impaired mood. A bidirectional association between sleep and depression has also been suggested. In this study, researchers attempted to identify associations between sleep factors and depression in the postpartum period.
Of 4191 women who were mailed a questionnaire at 7 weeks postpartum, 2830 (68%) responded. Subjects completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index — a widely used subjective scale of sleep characteristics — and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale — a validated instrument for the assessment of postpartum depression.
Using accepted cut-off scores, the researchers identified sleep problems in 58% of respon…