The Significance and Limitations of Monitoring Sleep during Pregnancy

Sleep patterns often change during pregnancy and postpartum. However, if severe and persistent, these changes can depict a risk factor for significant health complications. It is thus essential to identify and understand changes in women's sleeping pattern over the course of pregnancy and postpartum, to offer an appropriate and timely intervention if necessary. In this paper, we discuss sleep disturbances during pregnancy and their association with pregnancy complications. We also review the state-of-the-art digital devices for real-time sleep assessment, and highlight their strengths and limitations.Clinical Relevance—This review highlights an importance of an individualized holistic pregnancy care program which engages both the healthcare professionals and the obstetric population, together with an educational module to increase the user awareness on the importance of sleep disturbances and their consequences during and after pregnancy.