Integrative and Translational Approaches to Sleep Health During the Perinatal Period

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

This symposium includes sleep health and development experts from multiple academic institutions and countries to provide an understanding of the impact of sleep on perinatal well-being across species. The prenatal period is characterized by immense growth for the pregnant individual and the developing fetus. During this sensitive period, organisms are susceptible to environmental signals that alter developmental trajectories and ultimately, predispose them to risk or resilience for diseases later in life. Sleep is a historically understudied prenatal environmental signal that influences maternal and offspring health. In this symposium, we review prenatal sleep health across species and its implications for maternal well-being and offspring neurodevelopment. The first presentation introduces preclinical literature linking prenatal sleep health to fetal development and offspring neurogenesis. The first presentation will also discuss how prenatal sleep deprivation affects postpartum maternal behavior. The second presentation provides an overview of childhood experiences and their long-lasting effect on prenatal sleep and will also include novel findings linking prospective, longitudinal assessments of prenatal sleep quality and newborn brain structure in humans. Finally, the third presentation discusses the prevalence of prenatal sleep problems in human studies and highlights dual generation sleep health interventions delivered in the perinatal period as a means of improving maternal and child well-being. These presentations will be discussed and integrated by a leading scholar in the field of prenatal sleep and offspring development. Together, these talks integrate findings across species and highlight the importance of assessing prenatal sleep health to improve maternal and offspring health and development.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Melissa Nevarez-Brewster, University of Denver

Discussant

• Michele L Okun, University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Individual Presentations

• Perinatal Sleep Deprivation and its Effects on the Mother and the Offspring – Insights from Preclinical Studies - Presenting Author: Gabriel N Pires

• Antecedents and Consequences of Poor Prenatal Sleep Health - Presenting Author: Melissa Nevarez-Brewster, University of Denver; Özlü Aran, University of Denver; Angela J. Narayan, University of Denver; Kylie Harrall; Samantha Brown, Colorado State University; Catherine Demers, University of Denver; Alexandra Mejia; Mercedes Hoeflich Haase, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Maria M Bagonis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Sun Hyung Kim, University of North Carolina; John H. Gilmore, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Camille Hoffman, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Martin Styner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Benjamin Hankin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Elysia Poggi Davis, University of Denver

• Prevalence of and Interventions for Prenatal Sleep Problems - Presenting Author: Anna MacKinnon, University of Montreal