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Utility of subjective sleep assessment tools for healthy preschool children: a comparative study between sleep logs,
Mizue Iwasaki1, Sachiko Iwata, Akiko Iemura
1Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, Japan.
Insights
Parental sleep logs and questionnaires are useful for assessing children's sleep patterns, but tend to overestimate sleep duration and underestimate nighttime awakenings compared to objective actigraphy. Understanding these biases is key for accurate data interpretation in pediatric sleep research.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Medicine
- Child Development
- Behavioral Pediatrics
Background:
- Childhood sleep patterns significantly impact mental, behavioral, and physical health.
- Subjective methods like sleep logs and questionnaires are commonly used alongside objective sleep assessments.
- The specific characteristics of subjective sleep assessments in children require further elucidation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the characteristics of parental sleep assessment using daily sleep logs and brief questionnaires in preschool children.
- To compare subjective sleep data with objective actigraphic sleep study findings.
- To evaluate the accuracy and potential biases of subjective sleep assessment tools in young children.
Main Methods:
- A 7-day actigraphic sleep study was conducted.
- 48 healthy 5-year-old children participated in the study.
- Parental sleep logs and brief questionnaires were used for subjective sleep assessment.
Main Results:
- Parental reports generally correlated well with actigraphy for sleep schedule variables, but reported longer sleep periods.
- The daily sleep log showed a better correlation with actigraphy than the brief questionnaire.
- Parental reports captured less than 10% of nighttime awakenings detected by actigraphy.
Conclusions:
- Subjective sleep assessments are valuable tools in pediatric research, but their utility is study-dependent.
- Understanding the inherent biases, such as overestimation of sleep duration and underestimation of awakenings, is crucial.
- Accurate interpretation of subjective sleep data requires awareness of these characteristic features and limitations.
Background:
Sleep pattern is an important factor in a child's mental, behavioural and physical status. To evaluate the sleep patterns of children, subjective tools such as sleep logs and questionnaires are still widely used in addition to objective methods of sleep assessment. Despite the established correlation between subjective and objective sleep variables, the characteristic features of subjective assessment have not been elucidated.
Methods:
To investigate the characteristics of parental sleep assessment (daily sleep log and brief questionnaire) in preschool children, a 7-day actigraphic sleep study was conducted in 48 healthy 5-year-old children.
Results:
Sleep schedule variables in the parental reports generally correlated well with actigraphic assessment of sleep patterns; however, sleep periods were longer in parental reports than in actigraphic recordings. Although the daily sleep log was better correlated with actigraphy, the brief questionnaire showed a good correlation with sleep pattern on weekday actigraphic assessments. Parental reports recorded fewer than 10% of the night wakings recorded by actigraphy.
Conclusions:
Subjective sleep assessments remain useful, although their utility depends on the purpose and size of the study in question. However, knowledge of the potential biases and characteristics of such assessments is essential for correct interpretation of the data.
