Perinatal Physiological and Psychological Risk Factors and Childhood Sleep Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Most pooled results rested on only two or three studies, so the reviewers could not check whether findings held in different age groups, and could not test whether discouraging results went unpublished. Most sleep outcomes came from parents filling in questionnaires about their child's sleep, which relies on recall and may not match what the child actually does at night; a study that recorded sleep overnight found no link between mothers' depression and night waking that the questionnaires did show. Studies contradicted each other on preterm birth and sleep duration, bedtime and night waking, so no clear answer can be given on those. Several studies did not say which other factors they adjusted for, so some of these links may reflect things the researchers did not measure. Only English-language studies were included, and social and environmental factors such as housing and poverty were outside the review's scope. The finding that maternal anxiety was not linked to child sleep rests on three studies, all of which also measured depression, so it may not have the power to separate anxiety from depression.

The paper declares no conflicts of interest. The article text carries no funding statement; it is indexed as receiving NIH extramural research support.

Do not read these as cause and effect. This review pools observational studies, so it can show that a mother's depression, drinking or smoking and a child's sleep problems occur together, but not that one caused the other. Nothing here tested whether treating any of them improves a child's sleep.