The Impact of Positive Psychological States in Predicting Sleep Quality Amongst Pregnant Women

Abstract

Background: During pregnancy, due to special hormonal and physiological changes that occur in the body, sleep disorders are very prevalent; therefore, positive psychological states and emotions can have major impacts on overall sleep quality among pregnant women. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of 15 positive psychological states (trust in God, optimism, a sense of efficacy, accepting responsibilities, a sense of control, purposefulness, hope, meaningfulness in life, life satisfaction, positive mood and happiness, being social, self-esteem and self-worth, a sense of peace, appreciation, and forgiveness) on predicting sleep quality among pregnant women. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study followed a correlational-predictive design. The statistical population of this study included all pregnant women referred to health care centers in Khash in the first half of 2015, which included 890 individuals. The sampling method was multistage cluster sampling. Overall, 268 questionnaires were distributed among pregnant women, who had the inclusion criteria of the current study, in order to be answer freely and voluntarily. Moreover, to collect data, two questionnaires including positive psychological states (PPS) and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) were used. Results: The results of the correlation coefficient indicated that optimism, purposefulness, hope, meaningfulness in life, life satisfaction, positive mood and happiness, a sense of peace, trust in God and forgiveness were significantly related to high sleep quality (P ≤ 0.01). However, sleep quality was not correlated with a sense of efficacy, accepting responsibilities, a sense of control, being social, and a sense of self-esteem and self-worth (P ≥ 0.05). Additionally, the results of stepwise regression analysis showed that positives mood, meaningfulness in life and hope together predicted 0.47 of the variance in sleep quality among pregnant women (P ≤ 0.01). Conclusions: Since psychological states and emotions have great impacts on sleep quality of pregnant women, paying attention to women’s psychological states and emotions, especially in the last trimester of pregnancy, seems essential.