Sleep complaints: snoring and daytime sleepiness in pregnant and pre-eclamptic women

Background and purpose: To examine whether snoring and sleepiness are linked in pregnancy and pre-eclampsia. Patients and methods: We recruited 167 healthy and 82 pre-eclamptic women in the third trimester of pregnancy and 160 non-pregnant women. Subjects and their partners completed a sleep questionnaire. Height, weight, neck circumferences and blood pressure were recorded for all. Results: Pregnant and pre-eclamptic women were (mean +/- SD) 36 +/- 3.6 and 36 +/- 3 weeks pregnant, respectively. Age and height did not differ significantly between groups (P > 0.2), but pre-eclamptic women were heavier than pregnant and non-pregnant women and had higher BMI than pregnant women before pregnancy (all P < 0.05). Thirty-two percent of control, 55% of pregnant and 85% of pre-eclamptic women snored (P < 0.001), but pre-pregnancy snoring rates (pre-eclamptic = 36%, healthy pregnant women = 27%) were similar to those in non-pregnant women (32%) (P > 0.7). Sleepiness was reported by 12% of non-pregnant, 23% of pregnant and 15% of pre-eclamptic women (P < 0.04), but non-pregnant women had lower mean Epworth Sleepiness scores than both pregnant and pre-eclamptic groups (P < 0.001). Snoring was correlated with (P = 0.002), but explained only < 2%, of the variance in sleepiness. Conclusion: Snoring and sleepiness increased in the third trimester of pregnancy, particularly in patients with pre-eclampsia. However, the study suggests that sleepiness in pregnancy is largely due to factors other than snoring or breathing pauses. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.