Actigraphy is increasingly used for sleep monitoring. However, there is a lack of standardized methodology for data processing and analysis, which often makes between study comparisons difficult, if not impossible, and thus open to flawed interpretation. This study evaluated a manual method for detection of the rest interval in actigraph data collected with Actiwatch 2. The rest interval (time ...

This study examines whether voluntary sleep restriction at commonly experienced levels impacts decision making in a Bayesian choice task. Participants recruited were largely traditional age college students from a regional state university (n = 100) and a federal military academy (n = 99; n = 56 and 43, respectively, used in final analysis). Sleep was measured by actigraphy over a one-week peri...

BACKGROUND The importance of sleep is paramount to health. Insufficient sleep can reduce physical, emotional, and mental well-being and can lead to a multitude of health complications among people with chronic conditions. Physical activity and sleep are highly interrelated health behaviors. Our physical activity during the day (ie, awake time) influences our quality of sleep, and vice versa. Th...

Severe paradoxical insomnia, documented by actigraphy, was the predominant presenting complaint of a 48-year-old woman subsequently diagnosed with major depression. Both disorders remitted following a course of 5 electroconvulsive therapy treatments in spite of being previously refractory to hypnotic and antidepressant pharmacotherapy.

Sleep studies assess the quality of sleep and body response to sleeping disorders. Sleep studies have gained prominence as empirical studies have shown the relation between untreated sleep disorders to e.g. high blood pressure, stroke, heart diseases and other severe medical conditions. Polysomnography (PSG) [1] and wrist actigraphy are widely used in sleep studies. These methods are neither co...

AIM Disruptions to sleep in childhood are associated with poor behaviour and deficits in academic performance and executive function. Although academic performance of indigenous children from remote communities in Australia is documented as well below that of non-indigenous children, the extent of sleep disruption and its contribution to academic performance among this population has not been a...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of gradual sleep extension in adolescents with chronic sleep reduction. Outcome variables were objectively measured sleep and cognitive performance. METHODS Participants were randomly assigned to either a sleep extension group (gradual sleep extension by advancing bedtimes in the evening) or to a control group (no instruction). Our sample consisted of 55 a...

OBJECTIVE A cumulative risk approach was used to examine the moderating effect of familial risk factors on relations between actigraphy-based sleep quantity (minutes) and quality (efficiency) and sex- and age-standardized body mass index (zBMI). METHODS The sample included 124 boys and 104 girls with a mean age of 10.41 years (SD = 0.67). Children wore actigraphs for 1 week, and their height ...

Serum concentrations of urea and cholesterol were used as indicators of liver function in rabbits in an investigation of the responsiveness of the daily rhythm of liver function to phase shifts in the environmental light-dark cycle. Locomotor activity was simultaneously monitored by actigraphy. Serum urea and cholesterol concentrations exhibited robust daily rhythmicity with opposite phases. Bo...