ACCURACY OF A COMMERCIAL WEARABLE IN DETECTING SLEEP STAGES COMPARED TO POLYSOMNOGRAPHY IN ADULTS: CONSIDERING SLEEP CLASSIFICATION METHODS AND EFFECTS OF EVENING ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

Abstract Introduction Commercial wearable devices have shown the capability of collecting and processing multisensor information (motion, cardiac activity), claiming to be able to measure sleep-wake patterns and differentiate sleep stages. While using these devices, users should be aware of their accuracy, sources of measurement error and contextual factors that may affect their performance. Here, we evaluated the agreement between Fitbit Charge 2™ and PSG in adults, considering effects of two different sleep classification methods and pre-sleep alcohol consumption. Methods Laboratory-based synchronized recordings of device and PSG data were obtained from 14 healthy adults (42.6±9.7y; 6 women), who slept between one and three nights in the lab, for a total of 27 nights of data. On 10 of these nights, participants consumed alcohol (up to 4 standard drinks) in the 2 hours before bedtime. Device performance relative to PSG was evaluated using epoch-by-epoch and Bland-Altman analyses, with device data obtained from a data-management platform, Fitabase, via two methods one that accounts for short wakes (SW, awakenings that last less than 180s) and one that does not (not-SW). Results SW and not-SW methods were similar in scoring (96.76% agreement across epochs), although the SW method had better accuracy for differentiating “light”, “deep”, and REM sleep; but produced more false positives in wake detection. The device (SW-method) classified epochs of wake, “light” (N1+N2), “deep” (N3) and REM sleep with 56%, 77%, 46%, and 62% sensitivity, respectively. Bland-Altman analysis showed that the device significantly underestimated “light” (~19min) and “deep” (~26min) sleep. Alcohol consumption enhanced PSG-device discrepancies, in particular for REM sleep (p=0.01). Conclusion Our results indicate promising accuracy in sleep-wake and sleep stage identification for this device, particularly when accounting for short wakes, as compared to PSG. Alcohol consumption, as well as other potential confounders that could affect measurement accuracy should be further investigated. Support This study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) grant R21-AA024841 (IMC and MdZ). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views the National Institutes of Health.