Improving sleep to prevent depression during pregnancy and after birth
Sleep to Reduce Incident Depression Effectively in Peripartum - (STRIDE P)
This project offers a mindfulness-based sleep program to help pregnant and postpartum people sleep better and lower their risk of depression.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (East Lansing, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11298979 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you join, you would be invited to try PUMAS, a program that blends behavioral sleep strategies with mindfulness techniques aimed at calming a busy mind at night. The team focuses on treating insomnia and the nighttime rumination and worry that often lead to perinatal depression. Researchers will track your sleep, nighttime thinking, and mood through pregnancy and after delivery to see whether the program reduces new cases or relapse of depression. The approach builds on existing insomnia therapy but adds specific tools to target cognitive arousal that many patients say matters most.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are pregnant or recently postpartum people who have insomnia symptoms or persistent nighttime rumination and want non-drug strategies to improve sleep and mood.
Not a fit: People without clinically significant insomnia, those with acute severe depression needing immediate psychiatric care, or those not pregnant/postpartum are unlikely to benefit from this program.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the program could lower rates of new and returning depression in pregnancy and postpartum by improving sleep and reducing nighttime worry.
How similar studies have performed: Previous cognitive-behavioral insomnia treatments improved sleep in pregnancy but had only modest effects on perinatal depression, and PUMAS is a novel effort to better treat nighttime worry and thereby prevent depression.
Where this research is happening
East Lansing, United States
- Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences — East Lansing, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Drake, Christopher L — Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences
- Study coordinator: Drake, Christopher L
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.