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How many nights are enough? The short-term stability of sleep parameters in elderly insomniacs and normal sleepers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1999

WILLIAM K. WOHLGEMUTH
Affiliation:
Duke Sleep Disorders Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
JACK D. EDINGER
Affiliation:
Duke Sleep Disorders Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
ANA I. FINS
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA
ROBERT J. SULLIVAN
Affiliation:
Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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Abstract

Temporal stability is an important fundamental quality when measuring sleep parameters, yet it has been infrequently assessed. Generalizability theory was used to estimate the short-term temporal stability of five variables commonly used to characterize insomnia: sleep onset latency, total sleep time, wake after sleep onset, time in bed, and sleep efficiency. Estimates were calculated for 32 elderly primary insomniacs and 32 elderly normal sleepers, both in the lab and at home, using both sleep logs and polysomnography (PSG). A week of recording using either PSG or sleep logs was typically sufficient to achieve adequate stability (defined as G coefficient of at least 0.80) with some notable exceptions: (a) when using log-derived measures with insomniacs, a 3-week average was necessary for wake after sleep onset and (b) more than a 2-week average was necessary for sleep onset latency. Because of the substantial commitment involved in the physiological recording of sleep, alternative forms of aggregation are considered with the intent of improving temporal stability.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
1999 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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