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Comparative Study
. 1999 Feb 1;22(1):95-103.
doi: 10.1093/sleep/22.1.95.

Estimating sleep patterns with activity monitoring in children and adolescents: how many nights are necessary for reliable measures?

C Acebo  1 , A Sadeh, R Seifer, O Tzischinsky, A R Wolfson, A Hafer, M A Carskadon
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Estimating sleep patterns with activity monitoring in children and adolescents: how many nights are necessary for reliable measures?

C Acebo et al. Sleep. .

Erratum in

  • Sleep 1999 Mar 15;22(2):143

Abstract

Study objectives: This study provides estimates of reliability for aggregated values from 1 to 7 recording nights for five commonly used actigraphic measures of sleep patterns, reliability as a function of night type (weeknight or weekend night), and stability of measures over several months.

Design and setting: Data are from three studies that obtained 7 nights of actigraph data (using Mini Motionlogger actigraphs and associated validated algorithms [ASA]) on children and adolescents living at home on self-selected sleep-wake schedules.

Participants: Participants were 169 children aged 12-60 months, and 55 adolescents aged 11-16 years.

Measurements and results: Up to 28% of weekly recordings may be unacceptable for analysis in young participants because of illness, technical problems, and participant noncompliance; studies aiming to collect 5 nights of actigraph data should record for at least 1 full week. Reliability estimates for values aggregated over any 5 nights were adequate (> or = .70) for sleep start time, wake minutes, and sleep efficiency. Measures of sleep minutes and sleep period were less reliable and may require 7 or more nights for estimates of stable individual differences. Reliability for 1- or 2-night aggregates were poor for all measures. We found significant and high correlations between summer and fall session measures for all five variables when weekend nights were included.

Conclusions: Five or more nights of usable recordings are required to obtain reliable actigraph measures of sleep for children and adolescents.

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