The association between physical activity and sleep during pregnancy: a systematic review

Pregnant women frequently report experiencing poor sleep. Poor sleep during pregnancy is associated with negative health outcomes for both mother and baby. Physical activity (PA), including exercise may be an effective non-pharmacological strategy for improving sleep during pregnancy. The aim of this systematic review was to synthesize the current literature on the association between physical activity (including exercise) and sleep during pregnancy.

A systematic online search was undertaken between 15-16 February 2022 in PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase and PubMed. To meet the inclusion criteria articles had to; [1] be published in a peer reviewed journal; [2] consist of pregnant participants; and [3] be published in English. Studies were excluded if they were not published in English and did not investigate the association between a type of physical activity (including exercise) and a sleep variable during a trimester of pregnancy.

Ten studies were included in this review. Five of the ten studies used observational data collection measures and the remaining five used intervention based methods. Eight of the ten included studies found PA (including exercise) was positively associated with sleep during pregnancy.

In order to properly establish PA as a strategy to improve sleep during pregnancy, future research should aim to determine the PA characteristics most beneficial to sleep during pregnancy across each trimester.