Babies born to depressed moms are likely to suffer from chaotic sleep patterns, which could predispose them to depression later in life, according to a University of Michiganstudy published in the May issue of the journal SLEEP.

Findings of the study, conducted byU-M sleep expert Roseanne Armitage, Ph.D., are significant because they show that sleep and biological rhythms disturbances persist at least through the first eight months of life in the infants of depressed mothers.
Results indicate that infants born to mothers with depression had significant sleep disturbances compared to low-risk infants. The high-risk group, those with moms suffering postpartum depression,took up to 2 hours more to settle for night time sleep, woke up more often and had more daytime sleep than infants who were born to mothers without depression attwo weeks and 30 weeks postpartum.
“We think we may have identified a vulnerability in the initial entrainment of sleep and circadian rhythms that may elevate the risk for these children to develop later depression,” Armitage says. “Our task now is to determine if it is modifiable. Can we reverse the effects and reduce the risk of developing later depression by enriching sleep and circadian rhythms in infancy? ”