The aims of this longitudinal study were to examine (a) development of infant sleep and maternal sleep from 3 to 6 months postpartum; (b) concomitant and prospective links between maternal sleep and infant sleep; and (c) triadic links between paternal involvement in infant caregiving and maternal and infant sleep. The study included 57 families that were recruited during pregnancy. Maternal and infant sleep was assessed using actigraphy and sleep diaries for 5 nights. Both fathers and mothers completed a questionnaire assessing the involvement of fathers relative to mothers in infant caregiving. The results demonstrated moderate improvement in infant and maternal sleep percent between 3 and 6 months. Maternal sleep percent at 3 months significantly predicted infant sleep percent at 6 months. Greater paternal involvement in infant daytime and nighttime caregiving at 3 months significantly predicted more consolidated maternal and infant sleep at 6 months. These findings suggest that maternal sleep is an important predictor of infant sleep and that increased involvement of fathers in infant caregiving responsibilities may contribute to improvements in both maternal and infant sleep during the first 6 months postpartum.

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The aims of this paper are to study the associations between objective and subjective sleep in pregnant women, to examine which specific aspects of women's sleep are associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms and to test the moderating role of depressive and anxiety symptoms in the relations between objective and subjective sleep. The sample included 148 pregnant women. Objective sleep was measured by actigraphy for five nights at the participants' home, and subjective sleep was measured with the Pittsburgh sleep quality index. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale and anxiety symptoms with the Beck anxiety inventory. Significant associations were found between the subjective sleep measures and the depressive and anxiety scores, but there were no significant associations between actigraphic sleep measures and the depressive and anxiety scores. Depressive and anxiety scores emerged as significant moderators of the links between objective and subjective sleep. The findings suggest that emotional distress (i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms severity) during pregnancy is associated with subjective sleep disturbances but not with objective sleep disturbances. Importantly, only among women with higher levels of emotional distress was subjective sleep quality associated with objective sleep quality. These findings may suggest that women with higher levels of emotional distress are not necessarily biased in their perception of sleep quality. However, they may perceive fragmented sleep as more detrimental to their wellbeing.

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Postpartum emotional distress is very common, with 10%–20% of postpartum women reporting depressive or anxiety disorders. Sleep is a modifiable risk factor for emotional distress that has a pivotal role in postpartum adjustment. The present study aimed to examine whether sleep duration and quality during pregnancy predict trajectories of emotional distress in the postpartum period. Participants were 215 women that were assessed from the third trimester of pregnancy to 18‐months postpartum. At all five time points (third trimester, 3‐, 6‐, 12‐, and 18‐months postpartum), measures of sleep duration and quality (measured by wake time after sleep onset; WASO) were derived from both actiography and diary‐based measures. Repeated measures of depression and anxiety symptoms were collected using self‐report measures. Results indicated four bivariate postpartum depression and anxiety growth trajectories, including (a) high comorbidity (5.4%); (b) moderate comorbidity (19.4%); (c) low anxiety and decreasing depression symptomology (18.6%); and (d) low symptomology (56.6%). Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that mothers with shorter sleep durations during pregnancy were more likely to belong to the high comorbidity or moderate symptoms classes compared to the low symptomology class. In addition, mothers with higher WASO (i.e. lower sleep quality) at 3‐months postpartum were more likely to belong to the moderate class compared to the low symptomology class. Given the potential negative implications of disrupted sleep in the perinatal period, the present study may inform future intervention studies that target sleep problems during pregnancy.