Comparison between subjective and objective estimations of infants sleep

Abstract

Validation studies between subjective reports of sleep and objective actigraphy parameters in infants are limited (Sadeh et al., 2011). The aim of this study is to investigate the agreement between mothers’ subjective reports of infants sleeping problems and objective sleep parameters obtained with actigraphy. Mothers filled out a questionnaire about infants sleep and strapped on their infant’s ankle an actigraph for a period of 7 days. Data were obtained for 29 infants (57.1% girls) twice, i.e., when babies were 3 and 6 months old. 3-month-old infants described by their mothers has having sleeping problems, who gave bad nights and who had difficulties falling asleep (items added as a Sleep factor) showed less sleep efficiency ( r = −.379; p = .021), less actual sleep time percentage ( r = −.418, p = .012), more actual wake time percentage asleep ( r = .426, p = .011), less immobile percentage asleep ( r = -.329; p = .041) and more moving time percentage asleep ( r = .342; p = .035). These infants also revealed higher total activity score ( r = .448; p = .007), mean activity score ( r = .462, p = .006) and mean score in active asleep ( r = .451; p = .007) as measured by actigraphy. These consistent associations were not observed in 6-month-old babies. The vast majority of 6-month-old infants slept in parents room (own crib; n = 14; 51.9%) or own room ( n = 11; 40.7%) while nearly all 3-month-old infants slept in parents room (own crib; n = 26, 89.7%). Agreement between subjective and objective estimations of sleep was particularly observed in 3-month-old babies. A possible explanation for this result is that mothers are more aware of their infants sleeping problems when their babies sleep in parents room. AstraZeneca Foundation for financial support. The collaboration of Mothers and Health Staff is deeply acknowledged.