Wearable Devices Identify Altered Sleep Characteristics and Sleep Trajectories in Active Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Sleep Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Poor sleep is a known correlate of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) flares.
• Current research often relies on subjective patient reports for sleep and disease activity.
• Objective assessment of sleep disturbances in IBD is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To objectively evaluate the impact of inflammation and symptoms on sleep architecture in IBD patients using wearable devices.
• To differentiate the effects of inflammatory activity versus symptomatic flares on sleep patterns.
• To analyze sleep metric changes surrounding inflammatory and symptomatic events.

Main Methods:

• An observational study enrolled 101 IBD patients (age ≥18) using wearable devices for sleep tracking.
• Daily surveys captured disease activity, while wearable data provided sleep architecture, efficiency, and duration.
• Inflammatory markers and sleep metrics were analyzed for associations with flares and remission periods.

Main Results:

• Active inflammation was linked to reduced REM sleep and increased light sleep.
• Altered sleep architecture was observed during inflammation, irrespective of symptoms, but not with symptoms alone.
• Significant changes in the rate of deep and light sleep occurred before and after inflammatory and symptomatic flares.

Conclusions:

• Inflammatory activity, rather than symptoms alone, is associated with impaired sleep architecture in IBD.
• Objective wearable data provides new insights into the relationship between inflammation and sleep disturbances in IBD.