Perinatal Sleep Deprivation and its Effects on the Mother and the Offspring – Insights from Preclinical Studies

• In Event: Integrative and Translational Approaches to Sleep Health During the Perinatal Period

Abstract

Clinical studies suggest that perinatal sleep disturbances (either by sleep deprivation or sleep disorders) lead to important outcomes of mother and child. Understanding the impacts of disturbed sleep during pregnancy and postpartum is highly relevant, as it might lead to better maternal-infant health and well-being.
Preclinical research is an important tool to understand the impacts of disturbed sleep during pregnancy. It has been successfully used, considering the similarities between human and rodent pregnancy and sleep physiology, reinforcing the relevance of animal experimentation in this context. Also, using animal models brings practical benefits, such as allowing to investigate interventions and outcomes that are not easily accessible in clinical research (such as total sleep deprivation in the newborn or in the pregnant mother, or the assessment of neurogenesis and neurotransmission in the offspring).
This field of research is growing, and the preclinical publication output related to sleep in the puerperium is increasing consistently. Altogether, animal models have been valid to demonstrate the extent of the effects of perinatal sleep disturbances on both mother and the offspring. This includes outcomes in different contexts, such as outcomes at the behavioral, hormonal, electrophysiological, metabolic and epigenetic levels.
This lecture intends to present and discuss the most recent evidence and results on perinatal sleep modulation and possible outcomes, achieved by means of preclinical animal studies. It will be devoted to discussing the effects both in the mother (including maternal behavior) and in the offspring (including fetal development, neurogenesis and behavioral alterations). By the end of this lecture, the audience should be able to understand the usefulness of animal models on sleep research in the perinatal period, being capable to translate these data into potential clinical findings.

Author

• Gabriel N Pires
  Presenting Author