Age Trends in Actigraphy and Self-Report Sleep Across the Life Span: Findings From the Pittsburgh Lifespan Sleep Databank

Abstract

Objective: Sleep changes over the human life span, and it does so across multiple dimensions. We used individual-level cross-sectional data to characterize age trends and sex differences in actigraphy and self-report sleep dimensions across the healthy human life span.

Methods: The Pittsburgh Lifespan Sleep Databank consists of harmonized participant-level data from sleep-related studies conducted at the University of Pittsburgh (2003-2019). We included data from 1065 (n = 577 female; 21 studies) Pittsburgh Lifespan Sleep Databank participants aged 10 to 87 years without a major psychiatric, sleep, or medical condition. All participants completed wrist actigraphy and the self-rated Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Main outcomes included actigraphy and self-report sleep duration, efficiency, and onset/offset timing, and actigraphy variability in midsleep timing.

Results: We used generalized additive models to examine potentially nonlinear relationships between age and sleep characteristics and to examine sex differences. Actigraphy and self-report sleep onset time shifted later between ages 10 and 18 years (23:03-24:10 [actigraphy]; 21:58-23:53 [self-report]) and then earlier during the 20s (00:08-23:40 [actigraphy]; 23:50-23:34 [self-report]). Actigraphy and self-report wake-up time also shifted earlier during the mid-20s through late 30s (07:48-06:52 [actigraphy]; 07:40-06:41 [self-report]). Self-report, but not actigraphy, sleep duration declined between ages 10 and 20 years (09:09-07:35). Self-report sleep efficiency decreased over the entire life span (96.12-93.28), as did actigraphy variability (01:54-01:31).

Conclusions: Awareness of age trends in multiple sleep dimensions in healthy individuals-and explicating the timing and nature of sex differences in age-related change-can suggest periods of sleep-related risk or resilience and guide intervention efforts.

Figure 1.

Estimated actigraphy and self-report sleep duration with 95% simultaneous confidence intervals. Actigraphy duration has a main effect of sex (blue dashed for males; orange solid for females). The dotted rectangle illustrates the age region of significant change.

Figure 2.

Estimated actigraphy and self-report sleep onset and offset with 95% simultaneous confidence intervals. Self-report sleep onset has a main effect of sex (blue dashed line for males; orange solid line for females). Dotted rectangles illustrate age regions of significant change. Decimal time is reported on the y axis, such that midnight (00:00) is represented by 24 and 02:00 is represented by 26. Minutes are represented as a proportion, with 00:30 equaling 0.5.

Figure 3.

Estimated actigraphy and Self-Report sleep efficiency (SE) with 95% simultaneous confidence intervals. Models were estimated using transformed data (log (100 – SE)) and then values were inverse-transformed for the figure. Actigraphy sleep efficiency has a main effect of sex (blue dashed for males; orange solid for females). The dotted rectangle illustrates age regions of significant change.

Figure 4.

Standard Deviation (St.Dev.) of Sleep Midpoint with 95% simultaneous confidence intervals. The model was estimated using log-transformed data and then values were inverse-transformed for the figure. The dotted rectangle illustrates age regions of significant change.

Figure 5.

Differences between actigraphy and self-report measures of sleep with 95% simultaneous confidence intervals. Differences in duration and sleep efficiency showed a main effect of sex (blue dashed for males; orange solid for females). Dotted rectangles illustrate age regions of significant change.