Research on Improving Sleep during Pregnancy
Below is a description of the RISE Study and findings. Links to the scientific article describing the RISE Study are to the right.
Why did we do this study?
- Many women experience sleep disturbances during pregnancy. Often times, these sleep disturbances are caused by pain or discomfort.
- Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) was designed to help people cope with pain, and improves sleep among non-pregnant people.
- We wanted to find out if MBSR paired with prenatal sleep classes would be feasible and satisfactory among pregnant women with poor sleep quality.
What was involved in the study?
- 52 pregnant women with poor sleep quality were randomly assigned to get either 8 weeks of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Prenatal Sleep Classes (PS), or treatment as usual.
- We had a control group (treatment as usual) to give us more confidence that any improvements were due to MBSR + PS, and not due to the passage of time, changes during pregnancy, or something else.
- Study questionnaires were completed at the start of the study and 10-12 weeks after the participants were randomly assigned.
What did we learn?
- We found that our study was feasible to complete. We exceeded our recruitment targets, and enrolled 52 participants in the study. Nearly all participants (96%) completed our post-intervention surveys.
- We found that our intervention was satisfactory to participants. (FIll in with some other metric).
- A larger trial is needed to determine the efficacy of this program for improving sleep quality during pregnancy.
What are the next steps?
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTICIPANTS!
- We are so grateful for the time our participants spent answering study questionnaires during a time where there are already so many demands on one’s time and energy. As a result of their dedication, we conducted a high-quality study that has been published in top medical journals.
- We believe that because of them, this research will improve the lives of those suffering from prenatal insomnia in the future.
Interested in other resources?
- Check out a self-help CBT-I book, like:
- Quiet Your Mind and Get to Sleep, by Colleen Carney and Rachel Manber
- Listen to a sleep meditation, such as those available at:
- Insighttimer.com/meditation-topics/sleep
- Headspace.com/meditation/sleep
- Calm.com