Join the AASM Foundation at SLEEP 2026 for a special session on women’s sleep health titled:

S-07 Women’s Sleep Health From Preconception to Postpartum: Insights from AASM Foundation Projects on Monday, June 15 at 3:30 pm-5:30 pm EDT

Overview

In 2025, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) launched an initiative to understand and advance sleep health in women, recognizing the unique physiological, hormonal, psychosocial, and environmental factors that shape sleep in women. This symposium builds on that initiative by showcasing four AASM Foundation-funded projects that explore sleep health during critical reproductive transitions from preconception through postpartum. The research supported by the AASM Foundation has examined how sleep influences fertility, pregnancy outcomes, and maternal mental health. These studies have led to the development of novel preconception and pregnancy intervention strategies that can be further explored for integration into health care settings, with the potential to improve outcomes for women and their newborns.

The symposium will also highlight translational research linking prenatal sleep disturbances to fetal stress physiology and how maternal sleep plays a foundational role in shaping early-life trajectories. In the postpartum period, circadian-based interventions (wearable light therapy) are being evaluated for their potential to reduce depressive symptoms and support maternal recovery. Collectively, these studies demonstrate the value of sleep-focused research in reproductive health and underscore the importance of continued support and exploration in this area.

Featuring

• Slow-wave Activity as a Candidate Biomarker and Interventional Target in Infertility presented by Jennifer Goldschmied, PhD
• Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Pregnancy; Challenges and Recommendations for Screening presented by Louise M. O’Brien, PhD, MS
• Intricate Relation Between Prenatal Maternal Sleep and Depression and Associations with Offspring Stress Physiology presented by Melissa Nevarez-Brewster
• Wearable Morning Light Therapy for Depression: Mood, Sleep and Circadian Impacts by Leslie M. Swanson, PhD