Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background & Aim: Sleep disorders are among common complains of pregnant women with adverse physical and psychological outcomes.

  Material & Method: This study is a descriptive-analytical one to determine the sleep disorders in late pregnancy and its effect on the length of the labor and type of delivery in Firuzabadi hospital in Tehran in 2006. In this survey, the sample consisted of 151 women who were hospitalized for delivery in the hospital’s labor room. The researchers used questionnaires for data collection.

  Results: The results indicated that the sleep disorders during pregnancy were significantly more than that of the time before. About 95% of cases reported at least one type of sleep disorders during their pregnancy. Early waking up was the most common disorder. The second was waking up at night and the least common was snoring. The frequent urge to urine (in 70% of the cases) and backache (in 52% of the cases) were most common disturbances that caused the sleep disorders and the least common disturbances were inflation of nose holes, difficult respiration and general bad feeling in 13% of the cases.

  Conclusion: The results did not indicate any relationship between sleep disorders and the length of labor and type of delivery. Since the labor’s length of time differs in the multipara and primipara women, the relationship between the sleep disorders and the length of labor in either group was separately studied, but there were not any meaningful relationship statistically.