Sleep apnea severity in neonates requiring NICU care was not worsened by supine sleep, with a possible exception in the fetoscopic myelomeningocele repair group; 'Back to Sleep' remains life-saving and appears unlikely to increase sleep apnea risk.
AHI was similar between supine and nonsupine positions in the NICU recovery, postnatal myelomeningocele, and open fetal myelomeningocele groups.
The fetoscopic myelomeningocele repair group had substantially lower AHI when supine than when nonsupine.
The study provides data on position dependence of sleep apnea in neonates using polysomnograms from three NICU cohorts, including infants with repaired myelomeningocele and NICU recovery infants without congenital anomalies.
Contrary to the hypothesis based on older ages, supine sleep did not worsen sleep apnea in most groups of neonates requiring NICU care.
The authors speculate that obligate nasal breathing in neonates may protect against worsening of sleep apnea when supine.
The authors conclude that 'Back to Sleep' remains life-saving and appears unlikely to increase sleep apnea risk.
This study looked at whether babies' sleeping position affects sleep apnea, which is repeated pauses or reductions in breathing during sleep. Public health advice tells parents to put babies to sleep on their backs to lower the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In older children and adults, though, sleeping on the back often makes sleep apnea worse, so researchers wanted to know if the same is true for newborns. They analyzed overnight sleep recordings from 261 newborns in neonatal intensive care units, including babies who had surgery to repair spina bifida (myelomeningocele) and babies recovering in the NICU without birth defects. For most groups, breathing pauses were about equally frequent on the back and in other positions. The exception was babies who had a type of spina bifida repair done before birth using a fetoscope (a minimally invasive technique). These babies had markedly fewer breathing events on their backs than in other positions, which is the opposite of what happens at older ages. This research suggests that sleeping on the back does not appear to worsen sleep apnea in newborns who need NICU care, and that back sleeping advice is unlikely to raise apnea risk. The authors speculate that newborns' habit of breathing mainly through the nose may be protective. Because healthy newborns were not studied, and the babies studied were medically complex, the findings may not apply to all infants.</br>
Upload your bloodwork. We'll cross-reference your results against this study and 4,700 others.
Upload Your LabsMatlen L, Chervin R, Barks J, Hassan F, Eyerly-Webb S, Rocque B, et al.. (2026). Sleep position and sleep apnea in newborns.. Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44470-026-00218-0