The effect of sleep impairment on gestational diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the influence of sleep duration or impairment (poor sleep quality, snoring, and obstructive sleep apnea [OSA]) on gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, EBSCO, and WOS databases were searched up to March 4th, 2019. Cohort studies were included and relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were used as the measure of effects. Heterogeneity was assessed by the Chi-squared and I tests. Subgroup analyses, sensitivity analysis, and dose-response analysis were performed. The overall quality of the evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.

Results: A total of 16 studies with 2,551,017 pregnant women and 142,103 GDM cases were included in this study. Both short and long sleep duration were associated with increased risk of GDM. There was a U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and GDM risk (P < 0.001), and pregnant women with 8 h of sleep presented lower GDM risk. Poor sleep quality, snoring and OSA also increased the subsequent risk of GDM.

Conclusions: Pregnant women should be made aware of the benefits of proper sleep, and those with poor sleep quality, snoring, and OSA should be screened for GDM.