A systematic review of the relationship between postpartum sleep disturbance and postpartum depression

To examine the relationship between postpartum sleep disturbance and postpartum depression and describe the characteristics and demographics of the samples.

Electronic databases Medline, PubMed, Cochrane, EPOC, CINAHL, ProQuest, and Psych INFO. In addition, hand searches of bibliographies supplemented the electronic search.

English language primary studies on the relationship between postpartum sleep disturbance and postpartum depression were included. Thirteen observational studies met the inclusion criteria.

Data that specified the relationship between sleep disturbance and postpartum depression were extracted from the studies. The data were organized per author, year, participants, setting, country, demographics, design, sample size, outcomes, evidence, and effect size.

The effect size indicating the relationship between sleep disturbance and postpartum depression across the studies ranged between 0.4 and 1.7. There was evidence of a strong relationship between sleep disturbance and postpartum depression; however, the participants in the 13 studies were predominantly educated, middle class, older than age 30 years, and White. Likewise, the definition and measurement of postpartum sleep varied across the studies, which increased the possibility of bias.

Further research within the postpartum period involving underserved, younger women and samples with more diversity in race and ethnicity are needed.