The Relationship Between the Level of Physical Activity and the Quality of Sleep in Women in the Last Three Month of Pregnancy

This paper is aimed at studying the relationship between different aspects of physical activity and the quality of sleep in women who are in the last three month of pregnancy. The methodology in this study is of a correlation kind. This study is conducted through field research. The population in this study is the women who are in the 28th-36th week of pregnancy and were hospitalized in Imam Hussein hospital of Shahrood in 2013. 76 women were chosen as the sample. PPAQ questionnaire was used to gather the data regarding the level of physical activity and for the quality of sleep PSQI was used. The validity of the all the data gathering tools is approved by the experts and the academician of this major and for the reliability the Cronbach’s alpha was used (0.71, 0.81). To analyze the data SPSS software version 16 was used and to test the hypotheses Kolmogorov- Smironov test, Pierson’s correlation coefficient, and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used. The findings show that there is a significant inverse relationship between activities like footwork and the quality of sleep in pregnant women. But there was not a significant relationship between physical activities at home, at work, and the level of exercise with the quality of sleep in pregnant women. According to the findings it can be concluded that intensive footwork in the last three months of pregnancy can lead to sleep disorder. Therefore it is recommended that in addition to regular programs a predefined program is set for physical activities like walking and jogging outside of the house and prevent a lot of footwork.