OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to compare sleep wake patterns and nocturnal sleep parameters between the morning type (MT) and evening type (ET). METHODS: The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Korean version of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (KESS) were administered to subjects recruited among visitors to the Chuncheon National Museum from 2010 to 2011. Actigraphy data (Actiwatch-2, Philips-Respironics Co.) were collected from eight MT (Age 38.0+/-3.8, M : F=2 : 6), 12 neither type (NT) (Age 34.2+/-5.1, M : F=2 : 10), and nine ET (Age 30.3+/-6.8, M : F=2 : 7) subjects. RESULTS: Scores for PSQI and KESS did not differ significantly among the MT, NT, and ET groups. No differences in time in bed, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, sleep latency, and fragmentation index were observed among the three groups. In the ET group, the mean wake time on free days was significantly later, and the mean sleep duration on free days was significantly longer, compared with those of the MT group (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: No differences in sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, and nocturnal sleep parameters were observed among the MT, NT, and ET groups. Compared to MT subjects, ET subjects showed later wake time and longer sleep duration on free days.
Actigraphy ; Museums ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the applicability of data obtained from a wearable activity tracker (Fitbit Charge HR) to medical research. This was performed by comparing the wearable activity tracker (Fitbit Charge HR) with actigraphy (Actiwatch 2) for sleep evaluation and circadian rest-activity rhythm measurement. METHODS: Sixteen healthy young adults (female participants, 62.5%; mean age, 22.8 years) wore the Fitbit Charge HR and the Actiwatch 2 on the same wrist; a sleep log was recorded over a 14-day period. We compared the sleep variables and circadian rest-activity rhythm measures with Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and Spearman's correlations. RESULTS: The periods and acrophases of the circadian rest-activity rhythms and the sleep start times did not differ and correlated significantly between the Fitbit Charge HR and the Actiwatch 2. The Fitbit Charge HR tended to overestimate the sleep durations compared with the Actiwatch 2. However, the sleep durations showed high correlation between the two devices for all days. CONCLUSION: We found that the Fitbit Charge HR showed high accuracy in sleep evaluation and circadian rest-activity rhythm measurement when compared with actigraphy for healthy young adults. The results suggest that the Fitbit Charge HR could be applicable on medical research as an alternative tool to actigraphy for sleep evaluation and measurement of the circadian rest-activity rhythm.
Actigraphy* ; Humans ; Wrist ; Young Adult*

OBJECTIVES: Shiftwork is known to be one of the common causes of sleep and health problems and finally causes the decreased quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sleep patterns of shiftworking and daytime psychiatric nurses using actigraphy and compare it with subjective assessment for sleep. METHODS: Twenty-three shift-working and 25 daytime nurses were enrolled. They rated their sleep quality using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI) and other self-rating scales were measured for psychosocial aspects. Actigraphy was applied to the subjects for a total of 7 days to measure the sleep parameters. They also wrote sleep diaries during the period of wearing actigraphy. Sleep-related parameters of actigraphy, global score and components of PSQI, and the results of other self-rating scales were compared between shift-working and daytime nurses. RESULTS: Although the global score of PSQI did not show significant difference, the PSQI components showed significant differences between two groups: the shift-working nurses showed lower sleep quality, more sleep disturbance and hypnotic medication use, and worsened daytime dysfunction than daytime nurses. The shift-working nurses showed significantly shorter total time in bed and total sleep time, lower sleep efficiency, and longer average awakening time than those of daytime nurses in actigraphy. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that shift-working nurses experienced more sleep disturbances in both subjective and objective aspects of sleep than daytime nurses. This study also suggests that actigraphy may be useful to measure the objective aspects of sleep that are difficult to assess with subjective questionnaires alone.
Actigraphy ; Quality of Life ; Weights and Measures

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the sleep patterns of nursing students using self-report questionnaire and physiologic measurement, to examine the factors influencing sleep patterns in based on Spielman's model. METHODS: Participants were 119 nursing students who were in the clinical practice period. Self-report questionnaires and actigraphy were used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression by the SPSS/WIN 21.0 programs. RESULTS: When sleep was measured by self-report questionnaire, 84 students (70.6%) showed poor sleep quality. The mean sleep efficiency was 82.6%, and 67 students(56.3%) showed low sleep efficiency (less than 85.0%). The factors affecting subjective sleep pattern measured by KMLSEQ were circadian sleep type (β=.28, ρ=.003) and alcohol (β=.20, ρ=.031). The factors affecting total sleep time were sedentary behavior (β=-.27, ρ=.003) and daytime sleepiness (β=-.33, ρ<.001). CONCLUSION: Many nursing students in their clinical practice period expressed sleep disturbance. Factors affecting the perceived sleep measured by the self-report questionnaire and objective sleep evaluated by physiologic measures were different. The evening type of students perceived poor sleep quality, however, sedentary life style and daytime sleepiness resulted in short sleep time. Therefore, more studies measuring the objective sleep characteristics are needed using subjective and objective characteristics.
Actigraphy ; Humans ; Life Style ; Nursing* ; Students, Nursing*

Since its development in the early 70s, actigraphy has been widely used in sleep research and clinical sleep medicine as an assessment tool of sleep and sleep-wake cycles. The validation and reliability of actigraphic measures have been reasonably examined in healthy normal individuals with good sleep patterns. Recent literature suggests that the use of actigraphy could be further extended to monitor insomnia and circadian sleep-wake disturbances, and detect sleep changes associated with drug treatments and non-pharmacologic interventions, although it is generally recommended to use complementary assessments such as sleep diaries and overnight polysomnography when possible. The development of actigraphy includes its improved hardware sensors for better detection of movements and advanced algorithms to score sleep and wake epochs. In this paper, we briefly review the quantitative analysis methods of actigraphy and its potential applications in sleep research.
Actigraphy* ; Polysomnography ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders

OBJECTIVE: Alterations of activity are prominent features of the major functional psychiatric disorders. Motor activity patterns are characterized by bursts of activity separated by periods with inactivity. The purpose of the present study has been to analyze such active and inactive periods in patients with depression and schizophrenia. METHODS: Actigraph registrations for 12 days from 24 patients with schizophrenia, 23 with depression and 29 healthy controls. RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia and depression have distinctly different profiles with regard to the characterization and distribution of active and inactive periods. The mean duration of active periods is lowest in the depressed patients, and the duration of inactive periods is highest in the patients with schizophrenia. For active periods the cumulative probability distribution, using lengths from 1 to 35 min, follows a straight line on a log-log plot, suggestive of a power law function, and a similar relationship is found for inactive periods, using lengths from 1 to 20 min. For both active and inactive periods the scaling exponent is higher in the depressed compared to the schizophrenic patients. CONCLUSION: The present findings add to previously published results, with other mathematical methods, suggesting there are important differences in control systems regulating motor behavior in these two major groups of psychiatric disorders.
Actigraphy ; Depression* ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Motor Activity* ; Schizophrenia*

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the effects of a forward rotating shift pattern on police employee performance and well-being. This study sought to compare sleep duration, cognitive performance, and vigilance at the start and end of each shift within a three-shift, forward rotating shift pattern, common in United Kingdom police forces. METHODS: Twenty-three police employee participants were recruited from North Yorkshire Police (mean age, 43 years). The participants were all working the same, 10-day, forward rotating shift pattern. No other exclusion criteria were stipulated. Sleep data were gathered using both actigraphy and self-reported methods; cognitive performance and vigilance were assessed using a customized test battery, comprising five tests: motor praxis task, visual object learning task, NBACK, digital symbol substitution task, and psychomotor vigilance test. Statistical comparisons were conducted, taking into account the shift type, shift number, and the start and end of each shift worked. RESULTS: Sleep duration was found to be significantly reduced after night shifts. Results showed a significant main effect of shift type in the visual object learning task and NBACK task and also a significant main effect of start/end in the digital symbol substitution task, along with a number of significant interactions. CONCLUSION: The results of the tests indicated that learning and practice effects may have an effect on results of some of the tests. However, it is also possible that due to the fast rotating nature of the shift pattern, participants did not adjust to any particular shift; hence, their performance in the cognitive and vigilance tests did not suffer significantly as a result of this particular shift pattern.
Actigraphy ; Fatigue ; Great Britain ; Humans ; Learning ; Police

Periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS) have been diagnosed easily by nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG) and treated effectively with dopamine receptor agonist, benzodiazepine and opioid. However, few reports have objectively assessed the treatment responses. We treated a PLMS patient with clonazepam and pramipexole, and evaluated their efficacy with actigraphy. Clonazepam improved sleep quality without reducing frequency of limb movements, and pramipexole reduced frequency of limb movements without improving sleep quality, results which are consistent with previous study findings. Actigraphy proved useful in evaluation of treatment response of PLMS.
Actigraphy ; Benzodiazepines ; Clonazepam ; Dopamine Agonists ; Extremities* ; Humans ; Polysomnography

OBJECTIVES: We attempted to compare the performance of 2 commercially available actigraphies with focus on sleep parameters, using polysomnography as standard comparison tool. METHODS: Fourteen normal volunteers (5 males and 9 females, mean age of 28+/-4.6 years) participated in this study. All the participants went through one night of polysomnography, simultaneously wearing 2 different kinds of actigraphies on each wrist. Polysomnographic and actigraphic data were stored, downloaded, and processed according to standard protocols and then statistically compared. RESULTS: Both ActiWatch (r) and SleepWatch (r) tended to overestimate the total sleep time, compared to the polysomnography. Sleep-Watch (r) tended to underestimate the sleep latency. The two actigraphs and the polysomnograph did not show significant difference of sleep efficiency, when compared with one another. In addition, all of the sleep parameters from the instruments showed linear correlations except in SleepWatch (r) 's sleep latency. The sleep parameters from the two actigraphs did not show much noteworthy difference, and linear relationships were found between the sleep parameters from the two actigraphs. There was no significant distinction in the results of the two different actigraphs. CONCLUSION: The results of two actigraphies can be used interchangeably since the sleep parameters of the two different actigraphies do not show significant differences statistically. Overall, it is not legitimate to use actigraphy as a substitute for polysomnography. However, since sleep parameters except sleep latency show linear correlations, actigraphy might possibly be used to follow up patients after polysomnography.
Actigraphy ; Female ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Male ; Polysomnography* ; Wrist

The use of actigraphy, which can be used to estimate sleep-wake patterns from activity levels, has become common in sleep research. Actigraphy is a simple, cost-effective and non-invasive method for healthcare providers and researchers to assess patients sleep quality and screen for potential sleep disorders in recent years. But, there is no wide recognition and application of actigraphy in China up till now. This review summarized the application of actigraphy in evaluation of sleep and diagnosis of sleep disorders.
Actigraphy ; China ; Humans ; Sleep ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; diagnosis