Subjective and objective sleep quality during late pregnancy and the association with maternal gut microbiota in Chinese pregnant women.

BACKGROUND

The incidence of sleep disorders is relatively high among women in late pregnancy. Several studies have indicated that the gut microbiota play a significant role in circadian rhythms and sleep health. The purpose of this study was to explore the association of gut microbiota and sleep quality in pregnant women.

METHODS

There were 75 pregnant women recruited for this cross-sectional study. The subjective and objective sleep quality were evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Actigraphy. The objective sleep measured total night-sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), and wake after sleep onset (WASO). The gut microbiota was detected by 16 S rRNA sequencing. LEfSe analysis was used to analyze the differences in gut microbiota among different sleep quality groups, and logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between gut microbiota and sleep quality.

RESULTS

In the normal objective sleep quality group and poor objective sleep quality group, the abundances of [Eubacterium]_xylanophilum_group (aOR = 0.329, 95% CI = 0.132, 0.817) and Acetitomaculum (aOR = 0.013, 95% CI = 0.000171, 0.996) were negatively associated with objective sleep quality. In the high TST group and low TST group, the abundances of Bacteroides (aOR = 2.266, 95% CI = 1.065, 4.820), Lachnospiraceae_ND3007_group (aOR = 2.651, 95% CI = 1.116, 6.302), and Lachnospiraceae_UCG-001 (aOR = 2.107, 95% CI = 1.024, 4.334) had a positive relationship with TST.

CONCLUSION

This study identified associations between gut microbiota composition and sleep quality in pregnant women. Specific gut microbiota, including Bacteroides and [Eubacterium]_xylanophilum_group were associated with sleep-related measures. These findings provide suggestive evidence of a potential association between the gut microbiota and sleep health during pregnancy.