Sleep assessment devices: types, market analysis, and a critical view on accuracy and validation

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Sleep assessment devices are essential for the detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of sleep disorders. This paper provides a state-of-the-art review and comparison of sleep assessment devices and a market analysis.

Areas covered: Hardware devices are classified into contact and contactless devices. For each group, the underlying technologies are presented, paying special attention to their limitations. A systematic literature review has been carried out by comparing the most important validation studies of sleep tracking devices in terms of sensitivity and specificity. A market analysis has also been carried out in order to list the most used, best-selling, and most highly-valued devices. Software apps have also been compared with regards to the market.

Expert opinion: Thanks to technological advances, the reliability and accuracy of sensors has been significantly increased in recent years. According to validation studies, some actigraphs present a sensibility higher than 90%. However, the market analysis reveals that many hardware devices have not been validated, and especially software devices should be studied before their clinical use.

KEYWORDS:

• Actigraphy
• sleep detection methods
• sleep devices
• sleep quality assessment

Article highlights

• Classification of sleep devices into contact and contactless devices. Review of underlying technologies.

• Comparative analysis of formal validation studies that measure sensitivity and specificity of sleep devices.

• Analysis of the evolution of sleep hardware devices and sleep apps in the market.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Notes

1. https://www.actigraphcorp.com/actigraph-wgt3x-bt/.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is not funded.