Obesity continues to be a global concern of pandemic proportions. Excessive
gestational weight gain (GWG) increases the risk of women becoming overweight or obese.
Despite current strategies, 50% of women gain above the guidelines for GWG. This increases
the risk of conditions such as gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), pre-eclampsia and birth
complications. Long term, excessive GWG also increases the risk of overweight and obesity,
diabetes and cardiovascular disease for both mother and infant.
In the non-pregnant population, short sleep and disturbed sleep are associated with
various chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease.
Sleep disturbance in pregnancy is common, regardless of whether sleep disturbance was
present pre-conception. Despite strong relationships shown in the non-pregnant population,
the relationship between sleep during pregnancy and outcomes such as GWG,
glucose tolerance and dietary intake is unknown. The overall aim of this Book was to
investigate the impact of sleep during pregnancy on GWG, glucose tolerance and maternal
diet. Part A of this Book systematically reviewed available literature for interventions
designed to reduce GWG. The aim was to evaluate the efficacy of intervention to reduce the
risk of GDM and infant birth anthropometrics. The resultant literature had two behavioural
intervention targets; diet and/or physical activity. This confirmed that modifying sleeping
behaviour was a novel intervention target. Furthermore, dietary interventions were the
most effective at reducing the risk of GDM and infant birthweight. Interventions in
women who were overweight or obese preconception were not effective at reducing the
risk of GDM.