Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2025
Noninvasive, High-throughput Determination of Sleep Duration in Rodents
Published on: April 18, 2018
Actigraphy evaluation before and after intravenous ferric carboxymaltose in 3 children with restless sleep disorder
Zhuo Yu Brian Chu1, Lourdes M DelRosso1,2, Maria P Mogavero3,4
1University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
Insights
Iron supplementation improved restless sleep disorder symptoms in children. Actigraphy showed potential for objectively measuring improvements, offering a less expensive alternative to polysomnography for assessing sleep movements.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Medicine
- Neurology
- Iron Metabolism
Background:
- Restless sleep disorder (RSD) in children involves excessive muscle movements during sleep, causing daytime impairment.
- Low ferritin levels are common in children with RSD.
- Intravenous iron supplementation shows clinical promise, but objective data on symptom improvement is limited.
Abstract:
Restless sleep disorder has been described in the literature as a disorder affecting children and presenting with large muscle movements during sleep with an index of 5 events/h or more, leading to daytime impairment including sleepiness or behavioral problems. Children with restless sleep disorder have been found to have low ferritin levels. Studies with iron supplementation both oral or intravenous have been shown effective in clinically improving both nighttime and daytime symptoms. However objective data of the improvement is lacking. Repeating polysomnography is expensive, and alternative methods of assessing large muscle movements are needed. In this small case series we present actigraphy results in 3 children with restless sleep disorder collected for 1 week, a week before and 8 weeks after intravenous iron supplementation. Although actigraphy parameters were not highly consistent between our 3 patients, improvement in symptoms tend to parallel sleep parameters in actigraphy.
Citation:
Chu ZYB, DelRosso LM, Mogavero MP, Ferri R. Actigraphy evaluation before and after intravenous ferric carboxymaltose in 3 children with restless sleep disorder. J Clin Sleep Med. 2023;19(3):633-637.
