509 - Maternal BMI, not gut microbiota or growth status, negatively associates with sleep quality in U.S. breastfed infants

Poster Number: 509
Publication Number: 509.238

Lillian Berman, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, Denver, CO, United States; Richard Boles, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, United States; Kinzie L. Matz, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, United States; Gabrielle Glime, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, United States; Kathryn N. Davis, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, United States; Nancy F. Krebs, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, United States; Minghua Tang, University of Colorado Denver-Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States; Deaunabah N. Yazza, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, United States

Background: Infant sleep behaviors are associated with weight gain and risk of overweight. However, factors that could affect infant sleep are not clearly examined.

Objective: To evaluate longitudinal changes in sleep from 5-12 months of age and their potential association with maternal BMI, infant growth status and gut microbiota.

Design/Methods: 27 healthy, full-term 5-month-old exclusively breastfed infants were recruited from the metro Denver area. Sleep activities were assessed at 5, 9, and 12 months of age using the Micro-minimotionlogger™ actigraph from Ambulatory Monitoring Inc. (Ardsley, New York). Gut microbiota sequencing (16S rRNA) was conducted in 16 participants using 5-month infant stool samples. Maternal BMI was calculated at the infant’s 5-month visit and infant anthropometry was obtained at 5, 9 and 12 months.

Results: Maternal BMI was 24.30 ± 3.58 (range 19.97-33.67) kg/m2. Maternal BMI was negatively associated with average minutes of sleep over 24 hours at 9 months (p < .001) and 12 months (p < .05); and was positively associated with 9-month sleep fragmentation (p < 0.05), an indicator of restlessness during sleep. At 5 months the mean minutes of sleep was 956.72 ± 186.77 (15.94 hrs) and increased to 1134.39 ± 118.84 at 12 months (18.91 hrs). Sleep fragmentation at 5 months was 1.23 ± 0.64 and decreased to 0.72 ± 0.51 at 12 months (t (11) = 2.33, p = 0.04, Cohen’s d = .62). No significant association between gut microbiota diversity or growth status (Z scores) and infant sleep duration or fragmentation was observed at 5 months.Conclusion(s): For this group of breastfed infants, the gut microbiota was not associated with infant sleep at 5 months. However, higher maternal BMI was significantly associated with reduced sleep duration in infants at 9 and 12 months, and increased sleep fragmentation at 9 months. These observations align with typical child sleep development patterns at this age. As sleep is important for infant growth and development, these data highlight the need for future research to further address the biological and environmental factors that influence infant sleep throughout the first 1,000 days.