Abstract

Incorporating infant sleep, either as a predictor or as an outcome variable, into interdisciplinary work has become increasingly popular. Sleep researchers face many methodological choices that have implications for the reliability and validity of the data. Here, the authors directly investigated the impact of design and measurement choices in a small, longitudinal sample of infants. Three sleep measurement techniques—parent-reported sleep diaries, actigraphy (Micromini Sleep Watch), and a commercial videosomnography (Nanit)—were included, using actigraphy as the baseline. Nine infants’ sleep (4 girls) was measured longitudinally using all three measurement techniques. Nanit provided summary statistics, using a proprietary algorithm, for nightly sleep parameters. The actigraphy data were analyzed with both the Sadeh Infant and Sadeh algorithms. The extent to which measurements converged on sleep start and end time, number of wake episodes, sleep efficiency, and sleep duration was assessed. Measures were positively correlated. Difference scores revealed similar patterns of greater sleep estimation in parent reports and Nanit compared with actigraphy. Bland-Altman plots revealed that much of the data were within the limits of agreement, tentatively suggesting that Nanit and actigraphy may be used interchangeably. Graphs display significant variability within and between individual infants as well as across measurement techniques. Potential confounding variables that may explain the discrepancies between parent report, Sadeh Infant, Sadeh, and Nanit are discussed. The findings are also used to speak to the advantages and disadvantages of design and measurement choices. Future directions focus on the unique contributions of each measurement technique and how to capitalize on them.

摘要

将婴儿睡眠作为预测因素或结果变量纳入跨学科工作已变得越来越流行。睡眠研究人员面临着许多影响数据可靠性和有效性的方法论选择。在这里，作者在一个小的纵向婴儿样本中直接研究了设计和测量选择的影响。包括三种睡眠测量技术——父母报告的睡眠日记、活动记录（Micromini Sleep Watch）和商业视频睡眠图（Nanit）——使用活动记录作为基线。使用所有三种测量技术纵向测量了九名婴儿（4 名女孩）的睡眠。Nanit 使用专有算法提供了夜间睡眠参数的汇总统计数据。使用 Sadeh Infant 和 Sadeh 算法分析活动记录数据。评估了测量在睡眠开始和结束时间、觉醒次数、睡眠效率和睡眠持续时间上的收敛程度。措施呈正相关。与活动记录相比，差异分数揭示了父母报告和 Nanit 中更大的睡眠估计的相似模式。Bland-Altman 图显示大部分数据都在一致的范围内，暂时表明 Nanit 和 actigraphy 可以互换使用。图表显示了个体婴儿内部和之间以及跨测量技术的显着差异。讨论了可能解释父母报告、Sadeh Infant、Sadeh 和 Nanit 之间差异的潜在混杂变量。这些发现还用于说明设计和测量选择的优缺点。