Accelerated Aging Linked to Sleep Loss in New Mothers: Study | Health

According to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), when new mothers complain that all those sleepless nights caring for their newborn baby are taking years in their lives, they might be right.

UCLA research published this study in the journal Sleep Health.

Scientists studied 33 mothers during their pregnancy and their babies’ first year of life, analyzing women’s DNA from blood samples to determine their “biological age,” which may differ from chronological age. They found that one year after giving birth, the biological age of mothers who slept less than seven hours a night at six months was three to seven years older than those who slept seven or more hours.

Mothers who slept less than seven hours also had shorter telomeres in their white blood cells. These tiny pieces of DNA at the ends of chromosomes act as protective caps, like the plastic spikes at the ends of laces. Shortened telomeres have been linked to a higher risk of cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases, and earlier death.

“The first few months of postpartum sleep deprivation could have a lasting effect on physical health,” said study lead author Judith Carroll, George F. Solomon professor of psychobiology at UCLA. “We know from a great deal of research that sleeping less than seven hours a night is detrimental to health and increases the risk of age-related illnesses.”

While the participants’ nighttime sleep ranged from five to nine hours, more than half had less than seven hours, six months and one year after giving birth, the researchers report.

“We found that with each additional hour of sleep, the mother’s biological age was younger,” said Carroll, member of the Cousins ​​Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA’s Jane and Terry Semel Institute for neuroscience and human behavior. “I, and many other sleep scientists, consider sleep health to be just as vital to overall health as diet and exercise.”

Carroll urged new mothers to take advantage of opportunities to get some extra sleep, such as taking daytime naps when their babies are sleeping, accepting offers of help from family and friends, and, if possible, asking their partner to help out. ” help with the baby at night or early in the morning. “Taking care of your sleep needs will help you and your baby in the long run,” she said.

Co-author Christine Dunkel Schetter, distinguished professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, said the study findings “and other findings on postpartum maternal mental health provide the necessary impetus for better health. supporting mothers of young infants so that they can get enough sleep – possibly through parental leave so that both parents can shoulder some of the burden of care, and through programs for families and fathers. ”

Dunkel Schetter added that while the accelerated biological aging associated with sleep loss may increase women’s health risks, it doesn’t automatically cause damage to their bodies. “We don’t want the message to be that mothers are permanently damaged by infant care and sleep loss,” she said. “We don’t know if these effects are lasting.”

The study used the latest scientific methods of analyzing DNA changes to assess biological aging, also known as epigenetic aging, said Dunkel Schetter. DNA provides the code to make proteins, which perform many functions in the cells of our bodies, and epigenetics focuses on whether regions of this code are “open” or “closed”.

“You can think of DNA like a grocery store,” Carroll said, “with a lot of basic ingredients to make a meal. If there is a spill in an alley, it can be closed and you cannot get one. an aisle, which may prevent you from preparing a recipe. When access to the DNA code is “closed”, then the genes which code for specific proteins cannot be expressed and are therefore deactivated. “

Because specific sites in DNA are turned on or off with aging, the process acts like a kind of clock, Carroll said, allowing scientists to estimate the biological age of individuals. The higher an individual’s biological or epigenetic age, the higher their risk of disease and death.

The study cohort – which included women aged 23 to 45 six months after giving birth – is not a large representative sample of women, the authors said, and more studies are needed to better understand the long-term impact of sleep loss in new mothers, what other factors might contribute to sleep loss and whether the effects of biological aging are permanent or reversible.

Carroll and Dunkel Schetter reported last year that a mother’s stress before childbirth can accelerate the biological aging of her child, which is a form of “intergenerational transfer of health risk,” Dunkel Schetter said. .

Co-authors of the new study included researchers from the Department of Psychology, the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences, and the Department of Human Genetics and Biostatistics at UCLA and the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Funding sources for the study included the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Aging, both of which are part of the National Institutes of Health. (ANI)