Volume 34, Issue 1 e14272
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Sleep-specific repetitive negative thinking processes and prenatal insomnia symptoms: A naturalistic follow-up study from mid- to late-pregnancy

Juan Wang

Juan Wang

Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital and School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China

Liangzhu Laboratory, MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, State Key Laboratory of Brain-machine Intelligence, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

NHC and CAMS Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, ​Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing

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Yongqi Huang

Yongqi Huang

School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Contribution: Data curation, ​Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing

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Liuliu Wu

Liuliu Wu

School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Contribution: Data curation, Validation, Writing - review & editing

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Yaoyao Sun

Yaoyao Sun

Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, China

Contribution: Methodology, Writing - review & editing

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Xuan Zhang

Xuan Zhang

School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Contribution: Methodology, Writing - review & editing

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Fenglin Cao

Corresponding Author

Fenglin Cao

School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Correspondence

Fenglin Cao, School of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Shandong University, Jinan, China, 44 Wenhua Xi Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, China.

Email: [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Writing - review & editing

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First published: 18 July 2024
Citations: 1

Summary

Insomnia symptoms are highly prevalent during pregnancy; therefore, identifying modifiable risk markers is important for risk prediction and early intervention. This study aimed to examine the role of sleep-specific rumination and sleep-specific worry in prenatal insomnia symptoms. A total of 859 married pregnant women without history of psychiatric illnesses (mean [standard deviation] age, 30.15 [3.86] years; 593 [69.0%] with a bachelor's degree or above) were enrolled from the obstetrical outpatient departments of two tertiary comprehensive hospitals in Shandong, China, who completed assessments of sleep-specific rumination, sleep-specific worry, and insomnia symptoms at baseline (mid-pregnancy) and follow-up (late-pregnancy). Measures included Daytime Insomnia Symptom Response Scale, Anxiety and Preoccupation about Sleep Questionnaire, and Insomnia Severity Index. Our results showed that after controlling for covariates, both sleep-specific rumination and sleep-specific worry showed significant concurrent and prospective associations with insomnia symptoms, and the increases in scores of sleep-specific rumination and sleep-specific worry over time were significantly associated with the increased likelihood of insomnia symptoms at follow-up. Moreover, the increases in sleep-specific rumination and sleep-specific worry over time were significantly associated with the increased likelihood of reporting newly developed insomnia symptoms rather than persistent normal sleep. However, the changes in sleep-specific rumination and sleep-specific worry were not significantly associated with the likelihood of reporting persistent or remitted insomnia symptoms rather than persistent normal sleep. In conclusion, sleep-specific rumination and sleep-specific worry were significantly associated with concurrent or subsequent insomnia symptoms; thus, they may be promising cognitive risk markers and intervention targets.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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