National Sleep Foundation's sleep quality recommendations: first report.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Expert consensus guideline using a modified Delphi method informed by a systematic literature review
PubMed 28346153 · doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2016.11.006
What was done
The National Sleep Foundation convened an expert consensus panel representing sleep community and stakeholder organizations to establish indicators of good sleep quality across the lifespan. A systematic literature review identified 277 qualifying studies. Panelists reviewed full texts and abstracts, then used a 3-round modified Delphi RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method voting process to evaluate and establish consensus on candidate sleep quality metrics.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical cutoff values or statistical metrics. Panelists reached consensus that sleep continuity variables—specifically sleep latency, number of awakenings longer than 5 minutes, wake after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency—are appropriate indicators of good sleep quality across the lifespan. Conversely, there was less or no consensus regarding the role of sleep architecture or nap-related measures as indicators of good sleep quality.
Why it matters
This panel establishes baseline expert agreement on the primary continuity parameters that define good sleep quality for healthy populations across age groups, helping guide public health messaging and sleep health evaluations.
Limits
The abstract provides qualitative consensus findings without reporting specific quantitative thresholds, effect sizes, or voting distributions. Consensus reflects expert judgment rather than empirical meta-analytic pooling, and the panel failed to reach agreement on the relevance of sleep architecture or daytime naps.
Cited by
- supports Normal sleep onset latency is approximately 12 to 15 minutes.