Comparing polysomnography, actigraphy, and sleep diary in the home environment: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Sleep Study.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Prospective observational study comparing multiple measurement methods within the same cohort.
PubMed 35296109 · doi:10.1093/sleepadvances/zpac001
What was done
Researchers compared concurrent measurements from home polysomnography (PSG), wrist actigraphy (AW-64), and self-reported sleep diaries collected over three consecutive nights. The study included 323 middle-aged community-dwelling women (mean age 51 years, range 48–57; 147 White, 120 African American, 56 Chinese) from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Sleep Study. Multivariable repeated-measures linear models evaluated time in bed (TIB), total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), sleep latency (SL), and wake after sleep onset (WASO) across modalities, including moderation by race/ethnicity.
What was found
The abstract reports directional comparisons without numerical values or effect sizes. Actigraphy and PSG yielded similar estimates of sleep duration and efficiency. Sleep diaries produced higher estimates of TIB, TST, and SE compared to both PSG and actigraphy, and lower estimates of SL and WASO compared to PSG. Race/ethnicity moderated specific diary discrepancies: diary SL was shorter than PSG SL only among White women, and diary WASO was lower than PSG and actigraphy WASO among African American compared to White women.
Why it matters
Actigraphy serves as an acceptable proxy for in-home polysomnography for sleep duration and efficiency, whereas subjective sleep diaries systematically diverge from objective measures and exhibit demographic-specific reporting variations.
Limits
No quantitative data, error metrics, or statistical test values are provided in the abstract. The study sample was limited to middle-aged women, restricting generalizability to men, other age groups, or individuals with clinical sleep disorders. Assessments spanned only three consecutive nights.
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