How many days are needed for a reliable assessment by the
Sleep Diary?
Diego de Alcantara Borba,
Raquel Sousa Reis,
Pedro Henrique Tadeu de Melo Lima,
Lucas Alves Facundo,
Fernanda Veruska Narciso,
Andressa Silva,
Marco Túlio de Mello
Affiliations
Diego de Alcantara Borba
Universidade do Estado de Minas
Gerais, 1Departamento de Ciências do
Movimento Humano - Ibirité - Minas
Gerais - Brazil
Raquel Sousa Reis
Universidade do Estado de Minas
Gerais, 1Departamento de Ciências do
Movimento Humano - Ibirité - Minas
Gerais - Brazil
Pedro Henrique Tadeu de Melo Lima
Universidade do Estado de Minas
Gerais, 1Departamento de Ciências do
Movimento Humano - Ibirité - Minas
Gerais - Brazil
Lucas Alves Facundo
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,
Departamento de Esportes, Escola de
Educação Física, Fisioterapia e Terapia
Ocupacional - Belo Horizonte - Minas
Gerais - Brazil
Fernanda Veruska Narciso
Universidade do Estado de Minas
Gerais, 1Departamento de Ciências do
Movimento Humano - Ibirité - Minas
Gerais - Brazil
Andressa Silva
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,
Departamento de Esportes, Escola de
Educação Física, Fisioterapia e Terapia
Ocupacional - Belo Horizonte - Minas
Gerais - Brazil
Marco Túlio de Mello
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,
Departamento de Esportes, Escola de
Educação Física, Fisioterapia e Terapia
Ocupacional - Belo Horizonte - Minas
Gerais - Brazil
Introduction: Population sleep registration is important for the epidemiological investigation of possible disorders and diseases associated with sleep deprivation and restriction. The aim of the current study was to verify how many days and weeks are required for a reliable sleep diary application. Methods: 53 subjects of both genders participated in the study (Age: 25±9 years). The volunteers answered the morning-evening questionnaire for later identification of their chronotype (21 mornings; 22 undetermined; 10 evenings). They then received the sleep diary to fill in for a period of 28 consecutive days (or 4 weeks) of their nighttime sleep. The participant was instructed to describe the time at which they started sleeping and woke up within one hour after waking up. Results: There was no difference in participants’ sleep time between weeks. The participants had longer sleep times on Sunday and Saturday compared to other days of the week. The sleep diary reliability values increased with the increasing number of nights, reaching adequate reliability (≥ 0.70) with seven consecutive days recorded. Conclusion: A sleep diary seems to be a reliable tool for assessing adult sleep time, especially when used for a period of at least seven consecutive days including weekends.
