UK Edition
Women who are struggling to start a family may boost their chances of pregnancy by sleeping an extra hour a night, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Southampton compared the sleep patterns of 88 women, some with fertility problems and others without over the course of a month.
They found those with recurrent fertility problems slept on average for an hour less than their healthy fertile counterparts.
The study, published in the journal Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, showed women with recurrent implantation failure (RIF) - three failed cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF) with good quality embryos - slept on average for seven hours and 35 minutes.
This was 53 minutes less than the comparison group, which consisted of women who had at least one child conceived without reproductive treatment and within a year of trying.
Meanwhile women with recurrent miscarriage (RM) - which is defined as three or more unexplained pregnancy losses before 24 completed weeks - slept for 36 minutes less than the control group.
The quantity of sleep among all women was still in‐keeping with societal norms, with 22% of British adults sleeping between seven and eight hours a night.
All patients were recruited when attending gynaecology outpatient clinics but none were undergoing fertility treatment at the time, making it the first time a study has compared sleep activity among women with fertility problems outside of an IVF treatment setting - or with a group of fertile women.
There was no notable difference in the quality of sleep - such as sleep disturbances, exposure to light, use of sleeping medications and daytime dysfunction - between groups.
“It is known that sleep is a key feature of the human body clock but the relationship between sleep and fertility is, surprisingly, largely unknown,” said Ying Cheong, a professor of reproductive medicine at the University of Southampton and senior author of the study.
“These findings show that women with RIF slept for almost an hour less than the comparison group and this quantity of sleep loss over one week has been shown to cause biological changes in humans.
“This is also the first time a study into the sleep of women with recurrent fertility issues has been conducted outside of treatment, which means the results are less likely to be influenced by medical process.”
Commenting on the study, Yakoub Khalaf, a professor of reproductive medicine and surgery at King's College London, said: “This research is interesting in suggesting that fertility problems could be linked to sleep pattern or duration and it warrants further investigation.
“At present a causal effect can’t be established and the association is not particularly strong given the small sample size, so a much larger study is required in order to get further information.”