Actigraph placement and sleep estimation in children

Study Objectives: To determine whether actigraph placement affects sleep estimation in children. Design: Descriptive study. Setting: Naturalistic setting. Participants: Twenty children aged 7-12 years from primary schools. Interventions: N/A Measurements: Motor activity was measured from the waist and non-dominant wrist with actigraphs for three consecutive days during a school week. Results: The minute-by-minute agreement of sleep-wake states between the two measurement sites was 92.5%. Wrist- and waist-recorded sleep parameters correlated well and the mean values did not differ. Conclusions: Although the placement of the actigraph slightly affected the measured activity parameters, its influence on 3-night mean sleep estimates in children was not statistically significant.