Comparison of objective and subjective sleep time and quality in hospitalized recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, the sleep time and efficiency of recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were investigated throughout treatment and compared objective measurements with subjective self-reported data.

METHODS

Sleep time and efficiency were measured using both objective and subjective methods throughout the treatment period in inpatients receiving HSCT. The participants were recruited among HSCT inpatients at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, South Korea, between August 2019 and August 2020. Actigraphy was used to measure objective sleep time and efficiency. Subjective sleep time and quality were measured using the sleep diary and Insomnia Severity Index. Measurement data from 40 patients were analyzed. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to compare the differences between objective and subjective values in total sleep time and sleep efficiency.

RESULTS

The total sleep time was the lowest during the administration of anticancer drugs before stem cell transplantation. The total sleep time of patients with HSCT differed significantly over time when offsetting the difference in the measurement method. There were no significant differences between subjective and objective results for sleep time, and the interaction between the two methods over time was not significant. However, meaningful differences were found among the groups in sleep efficiency throughout the treatment period and between objective and subjective methods, as well as a statistically significant interaction between the two methods over time.

CONCLUSIONS

Actigraphy misclassified patients' low-energy state with little movement due to immune system impairment during treatment as sleep, resulting in high measured sleep efficiency, whereas their self-reported sleep efficiency was very low. Therefore, subjective measures might be more accurate for measuring sleep efficiency in HSCT patients.