Exercise During Pregnancy: Effects on Sleep Quality and Maternal Anxiety

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-807-8_19How to use a DOI?

Keywords

pregnancy light exercise; maternal anxiety; sleep quality; non-pharmacological intervention

Abstract

Sleep disturbances and mental-emotional distress during pregnancy represent common public health challenges that elevate the risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Non-pharmacological interventions, such as physical activity, serve as safer complementary strategies to improve sleep quality and psychological well-being. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Pregnancy Light Exercise program in reducing maternal anxiety and improving subjective sleep quality. A quasi-experimental pre- and post-test study (n=40) was conducted among pregnant women in their second and third trimesters. Participants engaged in a 4-week program consisting of 2 to 3 sessions per week (45–60 minutes per session). Primary outcomes were assessed at baseline and post-intervention using the 20-item Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) for mental-emotional distress and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for subjective sleep quality. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests and McNemar tests. At baseline, the cohort presented with a mean SRQ-20 score of 4.69 ± 1.90 (30.0% distressed) and a mean global PSQI score of 5.10 ± 1.80 (50.0% poor sleepers). Following the 4-week intervention, mean SRQ-20 scores significantly decreased to 2.45+1.20, reducing distress prevalence to 5.0%. Mean global PSQI scores improved significantly to 3.15+1.10, dropping the proportion of poor sleepers to 10.0%. Sleep onset latency decreased by 18.10 minutes, and nightly sleep duration expanded by 1.10 hours. The Pregnancy Light Exercise program is an effective, safe, and viable non-pharmacological intervention that significantly attenuates maternal anxiety, reduces sleep latency, and optimizes sleep architecture across gestational trimesters.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Elisa Danik Kurniawati
AU  - Winny Kirana Hasanah
AU  - Laras Putri Gamagitta
AU  - Freshe Jeaneris Sabian
AU  - M. S. Y. Haura Kaiyyisah Zhafira
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/24
TI  - Exercise During Pregnancy: Effects on Sleep Quality and Maternal Anxiety
BT  - Proceedings of the Malang International Conference on Medical and Health Sciences (MICROMEDHS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 238
EP  - 248
SN  - 2468-5739
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-807-8_19
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-807-8_19
ID  - Kurniawati2026
ER  -