Sleep therapy by video helped pregnant women put off going to bed less
Who it’s about: Adults, People with a health condition
- Helped
Weekly therapy on sleep times, winding down and bad thoughts about sleep cut putting off bed more than emailed tips.
- Action: Do a short wind-down routinetested
- Action: Challenge unhelpful thoughtstested
- Rule: At the same time every daytested
- Rule: With a coach or therapistused
- Rule: In weekly sessionsused
Small randomised trial of 64 pregnant women with sleep problems · vs six weekly emails with general sleep tips · they rated themselves
- Helped
A mindful version of the same therapy beat the emailed tips by about as much.
- Action: Do a short wind-down routinetested
- Action: Practise mindfulnesstested
- Rule: At the same time every daytested
- Rule: With a coach or therapistused
- Rule: In weekly sessionsused
Small randomised trial of 64 pregnant women with sleep problems · vs six weekly emails with general sleep tips · they rated themselves
The study
Who took part
64 pregnant women aged 20 to 39 in Detroit, USA, who had serious trouble sleeping. They were up to 28 weeks pregnant when they joined.
What they did
Two groups had six weekly one-hour video sessions with a therapist. One learned sleep habits and how to challenge unhelpful thoughts about sleep. The other learned the same sleep habits plus mindfulness. The third group got six weekly emails with sleep tips.
What happened
At the end, both therapy groups rated themselves as putting off going to bed much less than the email group. The two therapies worked about equally well. The trial was stopped early, so it was small for this question. Nobody was checked again later.
Source
Treating insomnia during pregnancy improves bedtime procrastination, rumination, anxiety, and positive affect: a randomized controlled trial of cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based therapies for prenatal insomnia (2026)
DOI: 10.1093/sleepadvances/zpag050 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action5
Challenge unhelpful thoughtsCognitive restructuring of beliefs such as perfectionism or catastrophising.
