Insomnia in pregnancy: causes, symptoms and treatment
Introduction
Suffering from insomnia during pregnancy is a very common occurrence and one with large numbers .
As highlighted by the ISS (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) in 2018, insomnia during pregnancy affects approximately 64% of pregnant women in their third trimester (the percentage is ten times higher than that of periods in which the pregnancy is not in progress).
The changes that affect the body of the future mother during the journey of sweet waiting, in fact, can also have an impact on the quality of night rest.
If you are expecting a baby and have noticed that your nights are no longer what they used to be, in this article, preceded by an index to give you the opportunity to delve into the various facets of the topic in detail, you will be able to discover everything about the causes of insomnia during pregnancy , but above all how to solve the problem.
For more tips on how to live the journey of sweet waiting with serenity, I invite you to take a look at the multidisciplinary prenatal video course curated by Doctor Maria Chiara Alvisi, the midwife of the DrSilva team.
If you want daily updates that help you guide your little one in his motor development, I'll be waiting for you on my Instagram profile @drsilva.com_official .
What causes insomnia during pregnancy?
When does insomnia begin during pregnancy ? Already in the first weeks.
With the increase in levels of progesterone , the quiescent hormone that slows down the mother's body's functions to allow her to adapt to the new situation, it is very normal to want to sleep during the day.
This means compromising the quality of your night's sleep.
After a general improvement in the situation in the second trimester, physical causes take over in the last.
The natural changes caused in a mother's body by the growing belly can cause the onset of back pain , a condition that is certainly not conducive to a restful night's sleep.
Warning: back pain , with all the repercussions it entails on the quality of sleep, can also appear at the beginning of pregnancy.
Many women report pain in the lower back area already in the first few weeks.
Everything is normal: it is the uterus that, invested by the hormonal change, contracts and begins to prepare for the incredible change in shape and volume that it will have to face to become the perfect home for the growing puppy.
Other physical causes of insomnia during pregnancy include nausea and the need to urinate more frequently (the uterus, pressing on the bladder, reduces its volume, causing it to fill more quickly).
Also noteworthy is the influence of cramps affecting the legs, plantar fascia, calf and legs, events caused above all by lymphatic stagnation (and resolvable thanks to the use of osteopathy ).
Insomnia during pregnancy can also be caused by psychological conditions, anxiety and depression first and foremost .
As this very important moment approaches, the synthesis of oxytocin increases, a hormone that is precious for the beginning of labor - not by chance, to help it start it is recommended to encourage its production with natural methods such as nipple stimulation - but certainly not a friend of a restful sleep.
The main symptoms
There are several symptoms that distinguish insomnia during pregnancy.
Among the signs that should not be overlooked are the difficulty in falling asleep within a time range of between 10 and 20 minutes, but also early morning awakenings and the difficulty in falling back to sleep if we are woken up at night.
If left unaddressed, insomnia during pregnancy can lead to the onset and/or worsening of conditions such as stress and irritability.
Since these events can further worsen the quality of sleep of the pregnant woman, it is important to intervene promptly to solve the problem of insomnia.
It is important to remember that insomnia during pregnancy must be addressed without leaving anything to chance, also because it represents a risk factor for the onset of gestational diabetes.
Among the various scientific testimonies, this meta-analysis published in 2017 and conducted by experts active in the USA and Thailand also underlines this .
These researchers, with data from eight studies involving 17,595 women, discovered that pregnant women who slept 6.25 hours a night were three times more likely to develop gestational diabetes than those who slept longer at night.
