Actigraphy in sleep disorders research. Issue 3 (March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kemlink, D.
• Is Part Of: Clinical neurophysiology. Volume 127:Issue 3(2016:Mar.)
• Page Start: e42
• Publication Date: 2016-03
• Subjects: Neurophysiology -- Periodicals; Electroencephalography -- Periodicals; Electromyography -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2015.11.135
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1388-2457

Abstract

Abstract : Actigraphy is neurophysiological method measuring movement relative to the gravitational field, thus its main purpose is to measure movement of a subject. The recording device is a unit of a size of one to three wrist watches, which is usually bound to the patient's limb. Typically, an actigraph is able to store the data for multiple. Therefore the examinations by actigraphy is very comfortable, completely non-invasive and relatively cheap. In sleep research and sleep medicine there two major applications. Firstly, actigraphy is used to objectively assess the circadian sleep-wake pattern. The methods works on a presumption, that a non-moving subject is likely to sleep, generating estimates parameters like of sleep latency, total sleep time, sleep effectiveness and daytime napping. Therefore, the fields of applications are disorders of the circadian rhythm, hypersomnia and partially insomnia, where actigraphy is mostly used to monitor treatment effect. Secondly, there have been efforts to record the individual limb movements by means of high-resolution actigraphy and to asses movement of lower extremities and estimate periodic limb movements. The main applications is thus diagnostic a monitoring of treatment effect in sleep related movement disorders, namely Periodic leg movement disorder and Restless leg syndrome /Willis-Ekbom disease.