Oxytocin and women's health in midlife.

Menopause marks the cessation of fertility and the transition to post-reproductive years. Nearly 1 million US women experience menopause annually, but despite the significant impact it has on their physical and mental health, menopause has been insufficiently studied. Oxytocin is a neurohormone that regulates emotionality, social behaviors, and fundamental physiological systems.

Patterns of Sleep Duration and Metabolic Biomarkers Across the Menstrual Cycle.

Context: Along the menstrual cycle, associations between inconsistent sleep duration and levels of metabolic biomarkers are uncertain and could involve fluctuations in estrogen concentrations.

Objective: To examine associations between patterns of sleep duration and metabolic biomarkers across two menstrual cycles within a cohort of premenopausal women.

Methods: The BioCycle Study was conducted in New York between 2005-2007, enrolling 259 premenopausal women over two menstrual cycles.

Early-to-mid pregnancy sleep and circadian markers in relation to birth outcomes: An epigenetics pilot study.

Maternal sleep and circadian health during pregnancy are emerging as important predictors of pregnancy outcomes, but examination of potential epigenetic mechanisms is rare. We investigated links between maternal leukocyte DNA methylation of circadian genes and birth outcomes within a pregnancy cohort. Women ( = 96) completed a questionnaire and provided a blood sample at least once during early-to-mid pregnancy (average gestation weeks = 14.

Disparities in sleep-wake patterns by labor force status: Population-based findings.

Sleep disturbances have been associated with unemployment, but variation in sleep-wake patterns by labor force status has rarely been examined. With a population-based sample, we investigated differences in sleep-wake patterns by labor force status (, and ) and potential disparities by sociodemographic variables. The analysis included 130,602 adults aged 25-60 y, who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2019.

Does fetal size affect maternal perception of fetal movements? Evidence from an individual participant data meta-analysis.

Introduction: Maternal perception of fetal movements during pregnancy are reassuring; however, the perception of a reduction in movements are concerning to women and known to be associated with increased odds of late stillbirth. Prior to full term, little evidence exists to provide guidelines on how to proceed unless there is an immediate risk to the fetus. Increased strength of movement is the most commonly reported perception of women through to full term, but perception of movement is also hypothesized to be influenced by fetal size.

Delayed Sleep Midpoint Across Pregnancy Is Associated with Excessive Gestational Weight Gain.

Changes in sleep patterns and body weight occur during pregnancy, yet it is unclear whether sleep patterns are related to gestational weight gain (GWG). This study examined the relationship between maternal sleep across pregnancy and excessive GWG. Participants from the Michigan Archive for Research on Child Health (MARCH) cohort study, who had singleton births and provided information on fall-asleep and wake-up times during early (first or second) and the third trimesters, were included ( = 372).

Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine and the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology Consensus Guideline on the Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Pregnancy.

The Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine and the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology tasked an expert group to review existing evidence and to generate recommendations on the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with obstructive sleep apnea during pregnancy. These recommendations are based on a systematic review of the available scientific evidence and expert opinion when scientific evidence is lacking. This guideline may not be appropriate for all clinical situations and patients, and physicians must decide whether these recommendations are appropriate for their patients on an individual basis.

Sleep Disparities Across Pregnancy: A Michigan Cohort Study.

Introduction: Poor sleep health during pregnancy is related to adverse pregnancy outcomes. This study aims to identify sociodemographic characteristics associated with sleep health during pregnancy and to examine how they relate to changes in sleep during pregnancy.

Materials And Methods: Participants ( = 458) were from the Michigan Archive for Research on Child Health, which is a prospective pregnancy cohort.

Variability in Sleep Duration and Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease Across the Menstrual Cycle.

Variability in sleep duration and cardiovascular health have been infrequently investigated, particularly among reproductive-age women. We examined these associations across the menstrual cycle among a cohort of 250 healthy premenopausal women, aged 18-44 years. The BioCycle study (New York, 2005-2007) collected cardiovascular biomarkers (serum high- and low-density lipoprotein (HDL, LDL), total cholesterol, triglycerides, and C-reactive protein (CRP)) at key time points along the menstrual cycle (follicular, ovulatory, and luteal phases).

Racial/ethnic disparities in sleep-disordered breathing during pregnancy in the nuMoM2b study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and severity of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) across racial/ethnic groups in 3702 pregnant people at 6 to 15 and 22 to 31 weeks gestational age, examine whether BMI modifies the association between race/ethnicity and SDB, and investigate whether interventions to reduce weight might reduce racial/ethnic disparities in SDB.

Methods: Differences by race/ethnicity in SDB prevalence and severity were quantified via linear, logistic, or quasi-Poisson regression. Controlled direct effect was used to estimate whether intervening on BMI would remove/diminish differences by race/ethnicity in SDB severity.

Risk factors for late preterm and term stillbirth: A secondary analysis of an individual participant data meta-analysis.

Objective: Identify independent and novel risk factors for late-preterm (28-36 weeks) and term (≥37 weeks) stillbirth and explore development of a risk-prediction model.

Design: Secondary analysis of an Individual Participant Data (IPD) meta-analysis investigating modifiable stillbirth risk factors.

Setting: An IPD database from five case-control studies in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and an international online study.

Sleep duration and timing are prospectively linked with insulin resistance during late adolescence.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether short sleep duration or later sleep timing is a risk factor for insulin resistance (IR) in late adolescence.

Methods: Mexico City adolescents enrolled in a longitudinal birth cohort (ELEMENT) took part in two study visits during peri-puberty that occurred approximately 2 years apart. IR was assessed with serum glucose and insulin.

Preconception sleep duration, sleep timing, and shift work in association with fecundability and live birth among women with a history of pregnancy loss.

Objective: To evaluate the associations between preconception sleep characteristics and shift work with fecundability and live birth.

Design: Secondary analysis of the Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction study, a preconception cohort.

Setting: Four US academic medical centers.

Novel treatment for hypotonic airway obstruction and severe obstructive sleep apnea using a nasopharyngeal airway device with 3D printing innovation.

Study Objectives: Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea impacts child and familial well-being. Airway management in patients with hypotonic pharyngeal conditions is complex. Some patients may benefit from continuous positive airway pressure or bilevel positive airway pressure, others may require further invasive measures for treatment.

Cell-autonomous Hedgehog signaling controls Th17 polarization and pathogenicity.

Th17 cells are key drivers of autoimmune disease. However, the signaling pathways regulating Th17 polarization are poorly understood. Hedgehog signaling regulates cell fate decisions during embryogenesis and adult tissue patterning.

Racial/ethnic disparities in subjective sleep duration, sleep quality, and sleep disturbances during pregnancy: an ECHO study.

In the United States, racial/ethnic minoritized groups experience worse sleep than non-Hispanic Whites (nHW), but less is known about pregnant people. This is a key consideration since poor sleep during pregnancy is common and associated with increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes. This study reports the prevalence of subjective sleep measures in a multi-racial/ethnic pregnant population from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.

Later sleep timing and social jetlag are related to increased inflammation in a population with a high proportion of OSA: findings from the Cleveland Family Study.

Study Objectives: To examine the association between sleep midpoint and inflammation in a population with a large proportion of individuals diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), a group that is already prone to increased inflammation.

Methods: Subjects from the Cleveland Family Study underwent overnight polysomnography and completed surveys on sleep habits. Morning and evening blood samples were collected and assayed for proinflammatory biomarkers interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α).

Risk of obstructive sleep apnea after treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: a cross-sectional study.

Study Objectives: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) or its treatment may be associated with an increased risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However, reported relationships between OSA risk factors and HNSCC are inconsistent. This study examined associations between tumor variables and risk of OSA at least 1 year after completion of treatment for HNSCC.

Sleep of infants and toddlers during 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the midwestern United States.

Study Objectives: Cultural sleep practices and COVID-19 mitigation strategies vary worldwide. The sleep of infants and toddlers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is understudied.

Methods: Caregivers of children aged < 3 years responded to a cross-sectional survey during 2020 (divided into quarters, with the year quarter 1 being largely prelockdown).

Parent-Reported Sleep Profile of Children With Early-Life Epilepsies.

Background: Sleep comorbidities are common, and sometimes severe, for children with early-life epilepsies (ELEs). Yet, there is a paucity of data regarding the profile of these sleep disturbances and their complications.

Methods: Participants registered with the Rare Epilepsy Network (REN) were queried about sleep via online questionnaires.

Risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea in cystic fibrosis.

Introduction: Despite emerging data that suggest a high frequency and severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) among patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), few of them are referred for polysomnography. Little is known about which patients with CF are at increased risk for OSA and which sleep symptoms merit investigation.

Methods: A single-center retrospective analysis of clinical and polysomnographic data from 2009, January 1 to October 31, 2020 in referred children and adults with CF.

Burden of sleep disturbance in non-Hispanic Black pregnant women.

Study Objectives: Non-Hispanic Black pregnant women disproportionately experience poor perinatal outcomes compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Sleep disruption has emerged as a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes, but there are limited data in minority pregnant women. We examined the prevalence of habitual snoring and its timing of onset with several key sleep-wake disturbances and their associations with perinatal outcomes in a cohort of non-Hispanic Black pregnant women.