I Need to Sleep – and So Do You. Sleep Can Affect Fertility
October 24, 2007 by Gabrielle
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
I noticed that both Kristina at Autism Vox and Mary Emma at Alzheimer’s Notes wrote about sleep issue today and it made me remember that the infamous sleep deprivation that comes in the first few months of motherhood is probably the thing that gives me the most pause when I think about our pursuit of parenthood.
It’s pretty much a given that you won’t be sleeping too regularly or often after your child arrives, but how do your sleep habits affect him or her before he/she pops out? What about your chances of even getting to that point?
Mary Kittel at About.com notes:
According to the National Sleep Foundation, 70 percent of Americans don’t get enough sleep, and most sleep disorder sufferers remain undiagnosed and untreated. Yet sleep is integral to our quality of life, overall health, and fertility.
The link here, say experts, is the hormone leptin, known for being an appetite and weight-regulation hormone. Researchers have found that it plays a critical role in female fertility. Leptin levels falls when we are sleep-deprived. Perhaps not coincidentally, researchers have now found that in some infertile women, leptin levels are low.
Irregular sleep patterns can also lead to irregular periods and bad habits, such as increased caffeine and caloric intake that affect fertility.
Ah ha! So my sleeping in on rainy mornings can be justified! Take that, hubby.
I’m pleased you found my post on lack of sleep of interest, Gabrielle. I could compare my lack of sleep when caring for Mother with the lack of sleep during the first 8 weeks of caring for our daughter. With Beth, I felt that eventually she’d begin to sleep through the night, which she did. With Mother, it only became worse. She seemed to have no idea of day or night. And she seemed to need less and less sleep.