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Published on: October 2, 2019
Comparing sleep measures of infants derived from parental reports in sleep diaries and acceleration sensors
1Konan Women's University, Faculty of Nursing and Rehabilitation, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan. asaka@konan-wu.ac.jp
Insights
Infant sleep diaries accurately capture sleep schedules, while actigraphs better assess sleep quality and stability. This comparison guides clinical use for infant sleep research.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Medicine
- Biomedical Data Collection
- Infant Development
Background:
- Accurate infant sleep measurement is crucial for development and health.
- Comparing objective (actigraphy) and subjective (sleep diaries) methods is essential for validation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare infant sleep measures from actigraphy and sleep diaries.
- To determine the clinical utility of each data collection method for infant sleep.
Main Methods:
- 52 infants and mothers participated over 7 days.
- Sleep data collected via actigraphy (Micro-mini RC) and daily sleep diaries.
- Analysis focused on concordance between the two methods.
Main Results:
- High concordance for sleep onset/offset times (r=0.91-0.89).
- Moderate concordance for nocturnal sleep duration (r=0.75).
- Lower concordance for night wakings and Wake After Sleep Onset (WASO) (r=0.46, r=0.34).
- Sleep diary accuracy varied with sleeping location and time.
Conclusions:
- Sleep diaries effectively capture infant sleep schedules.
- Actigraphy is recommended for detailed sleep quality and stability assessment.
- Method choice depends on clinical focus: daily rhythms vs. objective sleep parameters.
Aim:
Comparing sleep measures of infants derived from two data collection methods, acceleration sensors and sleep diaries, and identify the clinical application for each data collection method.
Methods:
The participants were 52 pairs of infants and mothers. Infant sleep measures were obtained through the actigraphs (Micro-mini RC, Ambulatory Monitoring Inc., Ardsley, NY, USA) and sleep diaries for over a period of 7 days.
Results:
The results showed that the concordance in sleep measures derived from two methods showed decreases in the following order: sleep offset time [r=0.91 (p=0.00)], sleep onset time r=0.89 (p=0.00), nocturnal sleep duration [r=0.75 (p=0.00)], the number of night wakings [r=0.46 (p<0.01)] and WASO [r=0.34 (p<0.05)]. It was revealed that the accuracy of sleep diary records was affected by the sleeping place and varied throughout the study period.
Conclusion:
It was confirmed that the sleep measures indicating sleep schedule reported from the sleep diaries had high concordances compared with the data from the actigraphs. Using the sleep diary was recommended to understand behaviours when focusing on infant's daily rhythms. In terms of accuracy and stability of recording throughout the study period, understanding sleep quality and independence of sleeping places, the choice of actigraph was recommended.
