Quantifying Sleep In The Real World

Written by Christine Guo, ActiGraph Chief Scientific Officer

ActiGraph recently published a white paper presenting several examples of how wearables have been used for the assessment of sleep in the treatment of sleep disturbances. In this installment of the Digital Endpoints Journal Club, we’re taking a deep dive into one of these case studies, which focused on chronic insomnia. This study not only revealed encouraging efficacy of medical cannabis on chronic insomnia, but it also shed unique insights on the approach to monitor sleep quality in clinical trials.

In clinical research, sleep is commonly assessed by three approaches -- self-reported questionnaires, actigraphy, and polysomnography (PSG). There are pros and cons associated with each method, and the research community has not reached consensus regarding which of these provides the best endpoints for therapeutics development across different clinical conditions.

A research team from Western Australia, led by Dr. Jennifer Walsh, decided to deploy all three approaches in this randomized control trial (RCT) to rigorously examine the treatment effect on sleep behaviors. I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Jennifer Walsh, the lead author of this study, on the ins and outs of their findings.