Medical College of Wisconsin
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Postpartum sleep loss and accelerated epigenetic aging. Sleep Health 2021 Jun;7(3):362-367

Date

04/28/2021

Pubmed ID

33903077

Pubmed Central ID

PMC10027398

DOI

10.1016/j.sleh.2021.02.002

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85106572831 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   47 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Insufficient sleep has been linked to accelerated biological aging in adults, providing a possible mechanism through which sleep may influence disease risk. In the current paper, we test the hypothesis that short sleep in postpartum would predict older biological age in women one year post birth, as indicated by accelerated epigenetic aging.

METHODS: As part of a larger study of pregnancy and postpartum health (Healthy Babies Before Birth, HB3), 33 mothers provided blood samples for epigenetic aging clock estimates. intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration (IEAA), extrinsic apigenetic age acceleration, phenotypic epigenetic age acceleration (PEAA), GrimAge, DNAmPAI-1, and DNAm telomere length (TL) were calculated using established protocols. Sleep duration was categorized as insufficient sleep (<7 hours per night) or healthy sleep duration (7+ hours per night). Sleep quality was determined using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Global score >5).

RESULTS: Maternal postpartum sleep duration at 6 months, but not 12 months, following a birth was predictive of older 12-month IEAA, B (SE) = 3.0 (1.2), P = .02, PEAA, B (SE) = 7.3 (2.0), P = .002, and DNAmTL, B (SE) = -0.18 (0.07), P = .01, but not other indices, all P> .127. Self-reported poor sleep quality at 6 and 12 months was not significantly related to epigenetic age.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that insufficient sleep duration during the early postpartum period is associated with accelerated biological aging. As the sample size is small, additional research is warranted with a larger sample size to replicate these findings.

Author List

Carroll JE, Ross KM, Horvath S, Okun M, Hobel C, Rentscher KE, Coussons-Read M, Schetter CD

Author

Kelly E. Rentscher PhD Assistant Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Aging
Epigenesis, Genetic
Female
Humans
Postpartum Period
Pregnancy
Sleep
Sleep Deprivation
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders