Familiarization With Ambulatory Sleep And Blood Pressure Monitoring

Abstract

PURPOSE: Sleep is a life-sustaining action that has implications in aspects of physical, mental, and emotional health. One necessary event that occurs during sleep is nocturnal blood pressure dipping. Measurement of ambulatory sleep and blood pressure are gaining popularity as these can be completed in an individual’s home. However, little is known regarding the reliability of data and the time it takes oneself to familiarize with the equipment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine how many nights of wearing the monitoring equipment were required to restore sleep architecture and blood pressure data to baseline. METHODS: Eight male and female subjects completed all 3 nights of both sleep and blood pressure readings. Visit 1 consisted of anthropometric and resting blood pressure measurements. The subjects were also familiarized with the equipment and instructed to wear the Sleep ProfilerTM and SunTech Medical Oscar2 ambulatory blood pressure cuff simultaneously for 3 consecutive nights. Visit 2 consisted of the subjects returning the equipment and the data being downloaded to a laboratory computer. RESULTS: The percent of time spent in N1, N2, N3, and REM were not statistically different between nights 1, 2, and 3. Time for wake after sleep onset was not statistically different between nights 1, 2, and 3. Time for sleep latency was statistically greater from night 2 to night 3 (p = 0.042). Percent nocturnal systolic and diastolic blood pressure dips were not statistically different between nights 1, 2, and 3. Cortical and autonomic arousals were not statistically different between nights 1, 2, and 3. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that ambulatory sleep monitoring takes 3 nights before the data is reliable and the person is familiarized with the mode of measurement.