A novel method evaluating the effects of peripartum estrogen fluctuations on sleep

Abstract

Clinically, sleep disorders are prevalent during pregnancy with more sleep disruptions occurring from late pregnancy through the postpartum period. Although there are many physical demands associated with pregnancy and birth that may contribute to these sleep disruptions, an understudied possibility is that hormones are directly acting in the brain to disrupt sleep. In order to test the effects of pregnancy hormones on sleep we used a hormone simulated pregnancy model in Syrian hamsters. Using Ethovision XT software, we developed a method to measure sleep using actigraphy data gathered through behavioral video recordings. Using this method we found that long periods of inactivity correlate with sleep while prolonged periods of activity correlate with wakefulness, thus activity can be used as a proxy for sleep. Using these data, we found trends suggesting that estrogen withdrawal following birth decreases total sleep time compared to sustained estrogen treatment following birth. This is important because these findings suggest a new method to measure sleep and that the effects of pregnancy hormones on sleep should be further evaluated.