Self-compassion and insomnia at pregnancy

Introduction Mindfulness based programs during pregnancy (some including self-compassion components) increase self-compassion, mindfulness and maternal self-efficacy, and reduce anxiety, stress and psychological distress in pregnant women. According to our knowledge, there are no studies about the association between self-compassion and sleep outcomes in pregnancy. Objective To explore differences in self-compassion, between three sleep groups, in a sample of Portuguese pregnant women. Methods Four hundred and nineteen pregnant women (mean age: 32.51 ± 4.759; weeks of gestation: 17.32 ± 4.803) completed the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS, Bento et al., 2015), presenting six dimensions (self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness and over-identification) and the Insomnia Assessment Scale (Marques et al., 2015). Three sleep groups were formed: good sleepers (no insomnia symptoms; no associated daily impairment); insomnia symptoms groups (one/more insomnia symptoms; no associated daily impairment); insomniacs (one/more insomnia symptoms; daily associated impairment). Results There were significant differences in the total SCS, self-judgment, isolation and over-identification scores, between sleep groups [respectively, F (2,396) = 7,926, P  ≤ 0,001; F (2,409) = 19,155, P  ≤ 0,001; F (2,410) = 13,016, P  ≤ 0,001; F (2,412) = 11,258, P  ≤ 0,001]. Self-judgement, isolation and over-identification scores of good sleepers and insomnia symptoms group were higher than of insomniacs. Total SCS score of good sleepers was higher than of insomniacs and the same score of symptoms of insomnia group was also higher than of insomniacs. Conclusions Results seem to show the importance of developing self-compassion to improve sleep in pregnancy or reduce the impact of insomnia symptoms (common at pregnancy).