Pregnant women who sleep less than 7 hours a night may have children with developmental delays. These children are slower to develop their social, emotional, behavioral, motor, cognitive, or speech skills. Boys appear to be at a higher risk.

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgae569/7762042

From the linked article:

Pregnant Women Who Sleep Less Than 7 Hours a Night May Have Children with Developmental Delays

Pregnant women who do not get enough sleep may be at higher risk of having children with neurodevelopmental delays, according to new research published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Short sleep duration (SSD) is defined as sleeping less than seven hours per night. Pregnant woman may have trouble sleeping due to hormonal changes, pregnancy discomfort, frequent urination, and other factors.

It’s been reported that almost 40% of pregnant women have SSD. These women may have a higher risk of impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance and gestational diabetes, and their children may be at higher risk of experiencing neurodevelopmental delays. These children are slower to develop their social, emotional, behavioral, motor, cognitive, or speech skills.

The study found:

Insufficient sleep during pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of neurodevelopmental issues in children, affecting their cognitive abilities, behavioral development and learning capabilities.

Boys appear to be at a higher risk of neurodevelopmental delays when their mothers experience SSD during pregnancy, suggesting that gender plays a crucial role in offspring response to prenatal environmental factors.