Obesity continues to be a global concern of pandemic proportions. Excessivegestational weight gain (GWG) increases the risk of women becoming overweight or obese.

Despite current strategies, 50% of women gain above the guidelines for GWG. This increasesthe risk of conditions such as gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), pre-eclampsia and birthcomplications.

Long term, excessive GWG also increases the risk of overweight and obesity,diabetes and cardiovascular disease for both mother and infant. In the non-pregnant population, short sleep and disturbed sleep are associated withvarious chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease.

Sleep disturbance in pregnancy is common, regardless of whether sleep disturbance waspresent pre-conception. Despite strong relationships shown in the non-pregnant population,the relationship between sleep during pregnancy and outcomes such as GWG,glucose tolerance and dietary intake is unknown.

The overall aim of this Book was toinvestigate the impact of sleep during pregnancy on GWG, glucose tolerance and maternaldiet. Part A of this Book systematically reviewed available literature for interventionsdesigned to reduce GWG.

The aim was to evaluate the efficacy of intervention to reduce therisk of GDM and infant birth anthropometrics. The resultant literature had two behaviouralintervention targets; diet and/or physical activity.

This confirmed that modifying sleepingbehaviour was a novel intervention target. Furthermore, dietary interventions were themost effective at reducing the risk of GDM and infant birthweight.

Interventions inwomen who were overweight or obese preconception were not effective at reducing therisk of GDM. .