Sleep Recordings in the Laboratory and Home: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract
All‐night sleep recordings were obtained for 8 subjects who slept for 3 consecutive nights in a standard sleep laboratory and for 3 consecutive nights at home. The order of recording locations was counterbalanced across subjects. No first night effects were found in either location. Subjects' sleep in the two locations was highly correlated, with nonsignificant correlations occurring on only four variables (Number of Stage 1 Arousals, Minutes of Stage 1 Sleep, Latency to First REM, and number of REM periods). Significant differences between mean values were found on four variables: Minutes of Stage 3 Sleep, Percent of Stage 2 Sleep, Percent of Stage 3 Sleep, and Number of REM periods. Variances on Total Sleep Time and Latency to Sleep Onset were greater in the laboratory than at home. Generalizability theory was used to generate estimates of the degree to which each experimental factor (subjects, occasions, and raters) influenced observed score variance in each location. There was less between and within‐subject variability at home on Total Sleep Time, Latency to Sleep Onset, and Stages 1 and 2 Sleep. Minutes Awake after Sleep Onset, Number of Arousals, and REM Sleep were less variable in the laboratory than at home. Taken together, these data suggest strong relationships between estimates of sleep parameters obtained in the two locations. But recordings in different locations may yield different values on some variables for groups of persons and for some individuals within those groups.

This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit: