Validation of midsagittal jaw movements to measure sleep in healthy adults by comparison with actigraphy and polysomnography

OBJECTIVE: In a device based on midsagittal jaw movements analysis, we assessed a sleep-wake automatic detector as an objective method to measure sleep in healthy adults by comparison with wrist actigraphy against polysomnography (PSG). METHODS: Simultaneous and synchronized in-lab PSG, wrist actigraphy and jaw movements were carried out in 38 healthy participants. Epoch by epoch analysis was realized to assess the ability to sleep-wake distinction. Sleep parameters as measured by the three devices were compared. This included three regularly reported parameters: total sleep time, sleep onset latency, and wake after sleep onset. Also, two supplementary parameters, wake during sleep period and latency time, were added to measure quiet wakefulness state. RESULTS: The jaw movements showed sensitivity level equal to actigraphy 96% and higher specificity level (64% and 48% respectively). The level of agreement between the two devices was high (87%). The analysis of their disagreement by discrepant resolution analysis used PSG as resolver revealed that jaw movements was right (58.9%) more often than actigraphy (41%). In sleep parameters comparison, the coefficient correlation of jaw movements was higher than actigraphy in all parameters. Moreover, its ability to distinct sleep-wake state allowed for a more effective estimation of the parameters that measured the quiet wakefulness state. CONCLUSIONS: Midsagittal jaw movements analysis is a reliable method to measure sleep. In healthy adults, this device proved to be superior to actigraphy in terms of estimation of all sleep parameters and distinction of sleep-wake status.