Can a Phone-Based Self-Care Program Help Pregnant Women Sleep?

Growing a baby is exhausting work, and yet sleep, the very thing that should help you recover, often becomes harder to come by during pregnancy. If you have spent nights shifting positions, waking up over and over, or simply lying awake while the rest of the house sleeps, you are far from alone. Researchers in Iran wanted to know whether a friendly, phone-based self-care program could help expecting mothers rest a little more easily.

What the researchers wanted to know

Sleep problems are strikingly common in pregnancy. The study notes they affect up to 80% of pregnant women, and poor sleep has been linked with serious complications such as preeclampsia and preterm birth. Support can also be hard to reach, especially in lower-resource settings. The team wanted to test whether a mobile health, or mHealth, program delivered through everyday messaging apps could improve two things at once: sleep quality and health literacy, meaning how well someone understands and acts on health information. They were particularly curious about a program built around traditional wellness practices, which few digital tools have tried.

How they studied it

The researchers ran a quasi-experimental controlled trial in Qom, Iran, between April and August 2025. Seventy-two pregnant women from a community health center took part and were assigned to either the program group of 36 women or a comparison group of 36 women who did not receive it. The program group got twice-weekly digital sessions through the messaging apps Eita and Telegram over three months. The content drew on six areas of Iranian traditional medicine for pregnancy: nutrition, mental health, physical activity, sleep, environmental factors, and bodily substance retention. Sessions arrived in a mix of formats, including audio files, videos, pamphlets, reminders, and question-and-answer exchanges. To measure results, the researchers used a widely used sleep questionnaire called the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, or PSQI, along with a maternal health literacy questionnaire, both at the start and again three months later.

What they found

The women who received the program slept noticeably better. On the PSQI, where higher scores mean worse sleep, the program group's global score dropped from about 7.2 to 4.4, a statistically significant improvement. The comparison group, by contrast, did not improve. If anything their scores drifted slightly in the wrong direction, from about 6.6 to 7.1, a change that was not statistically meaningful. In plain terms, the women following the guided digital sessions reported clearer, more restful sleep after three months, while those who did not follow the program stayed about the same.

What this means for you

If you are pregnant and struggling to sleep, this study is an encouraging sign that structured, gentle self-care, the kind you can reach from your phone, may help. The program was not a single magic tip. It wove together small, familiar habits around nutrition, movement, calm, and bedtime routines, delivered in bite-sized sessions a couple of times a week. That little-and-often rhythm may be part of what made it feel manageable rather than like one more chore. You do not need a special app to borrow its spirit: predictable wind-down routines, gentle daytime movement, and easy access to trustworthy information can all support rest. Because pregnancy is a sensitive time, it is always wise to run any new routine past your own midwife or doctor, who knows your situation best.

The honest caveats

This was a relatively small study, with 72 women in a single city in Iran, so the results may not carry over to every population or every kind of sleep trouble. It was quasi-experimental, and the participants knew they were receiving extra support, which can influence how people report their own sleep. Sleep quality was self-reported through a questionnaire rather than tracked in a lab, and the follow-up lasted only three months, so we cannot say whether the benefits hold into later pregnancy or after the baby arrives. The program also blended many ingredients at once, which makes it impossible to know which parts did the heavy lifting. Finally, this is one study, and findings like these become far more trustworthy once other teams repeat them with larger, more diverse groups. Even so, as an early signal, it suggests a low-cost, phone-based approach is worth taking seriously.