International Journal of Drug Research and Technology

ROLE OF OBJECTIVELY MEASURING SLEEP IN DRUG RESEARCH

Abstract

Solveig Magnusdottir*

Sleep quality and duration play an important role for overall health and wellbeing, as it is associated with development of various diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, making it important in research to have objective information of sleep physiology that either may affect or be affected by sleep. In the past, self-reported habitual sleep quality and duration has been the standard practice in research as a screening method. Although asking about sleep quality and duration seems uncomplicated, subjective questionnaires have been found to have a low correlation with objective measures of sleep. Until recently it has not been easy or accessible to collect objective data on sleep health. With improvements in sensor technology, now it is possible to apply ambulatory methods available to collect medically relevant physiological bio-signals like ECG that can be automatically analyzed to measure sleep duration sleep quality and sleep pathology providing a unique insight into sleep health.