# Prenatal Sleep Health, Cortisol, and Gestational Weight Gain

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2022 · $2,500

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) significantly increases the risk of adverse birth outcomes and long-
term maternal and child health issues. This is a significant public health concern, because over half of women of
child-bearing age in the United States are overweight or obese, and these rates are disproportionately higher in
minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged women. Despite efforts in the last 10 years to curtail excessive
GWG rates, prenatal weight gain counseling and clinical interventions aimed at increasing physical activity and
promoting healthy eating have led to inconsistent results, especially among low-income minority mothers. Thus,
there is a need to identify alternative modifiable predictors of excessive GWG in minority women to improve
the current prenatal care recommendations for GWG.
Although more than 75% of women report sleep problems during pregnancy, and poor sleep is a putative risk
factor for obesity in non-pregnant populations, sleep has consistently received less attention in prenatal weight
gain interventions. However, current literature is limited by their cross-sectional nature, which does not permit
examination of the effects of change in sleep health dimensions (i.e. duration, continuity, alertness, quality,
and timing) during pregnancy or whether the relationship between sleep health and GWG differ by trimester.
Furthermore, exploration of physiological mechanisms that link sleep health and GWG, such as the
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its by-product cortisol, is still lacking in pregnant populations.
The overall goal of this study is to examine both population-level (between-person) and day-level (within-person)
associations among sleep health, diurnal cortisol patterns, and GWG throughout pregnancy. This project will
leverage data from 750 pregnant women enrolled in the NIH-funded Maternal and Developmental Risks from
Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) Study (NIH P50ES026086) and a sample of 65 pregnant women
from the real-time personal monitoring sub-study in MADRES. The proposed study will elucidate prenatal sleep
health as an important factor that informs weight gain trends in minority mothers. Thus, findings will help identify
sleep health as a target behavior for future excessive GWG interventions. This fellowship will allow me to receive
mentorship from interdisciplinary faculty and contribute to my long-term goal of becoming a Principal Investigator
and research scientist who integrates psychobiological and behavioral research under a public health umbrella
to improve maternal, child, and family health outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10478440
- **Project number:** 3F31HL154716-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Christine Hotaru Naya
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $2,500
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-10-01 → 2022-08-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10478440

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10478440, Prenatal Sleep Health, Cortisol, and Gestational Weight Gain (3F31HL154716-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10478440. Licensed CC0.

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