Want to Lose Weight After Pregnancy? Get Some Sleep

Mothers who get less than five hours of shut-eye a night have more trouble shedding pregnancy weight after childbirth than mothers who sleep for more than seven hours, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The survey of 940 mothers found that the short-sleeping ones were three times as likely to keep at least 5 kilograms, or about 11 pounds, of the weight they gained during pregnancy, compared with those who got more sleep during the year after childbirth. They also tended to shed weight more slowly. The mothers were surveyed about their sleep habits at six months and one year after having the baby.

Sleep was related to weight retention even after taking into account factors such marital status, ethnicity, education, income, and number of previous children. The study also considered weight-related behaviors such as breastfeeding and being physically active.

“It looks like sleep may be as important as a health behavior, like diet and physical activity, for women in this year after pregnancy” in terms of weight retention, Erica Gunderson, lead author of the study and an investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., told the Health Blog. “That’s something to keep in mind, to really take care of yourself.”

Other research has found the link between sleep and weight gain in the general population.

The reasons why some moms are getting such a small amount of sleep can’t be determined from this study and will be the focus of future research, says Gunderson. When more is known about those factors, the researchers may try to design an intervention to help mothers get more sleep. No word on whether they have a plan to get newborns to sleep through the night to make things a little easier on the moms.