Evaluating the Use of Commercially Available Wearable Wristbands to Capture Adolescents’ Daily Sleep Duration

Abstract

Commercially available wearable devices are marketed as a means of objectively capturing daily sleep easily and inexpensively outside of the laboratory. Two ecological momentary assessment studies—with 120 older adolescents (aged 18–19) and 395 younger adolescents (aged 10–16)—captured nightly self‐reported and wearable (Jawbone) recorded sleep duration. Self‐reported and wearable recorded daily sleep duration were moderately correlated (r ~ .50), associations which were stronger on weekdays and among young adolescent boys. Older adolescents self‐reported sleep duration closely corresponded with estimates from the wearable device, but younger adolescents reported having an hour more of sleep, on average, compared to device estimates. Self‐reported, but not wearable‐recorded, sleep duration and quality were consistently associated with daily well‐being measures. Suggestions for the integration of commercially available wearable devices into future daily research with adolescents are provided.

The Practicalities and Perils of Ambulatory Assessment's Promise: Introduction to a Special Section

“…For instance, missing data within these populations can be vexing, perhaps because youth can be “too busy” engaging in real‐life behaviors, such as risk activity, to adhere to study protocols (e.g., Duvenage et al., ; Odgers, ), or because youth wish to preempt “shoulder surfing” when responding to sensitive questions (Dockray, O'Neill, & Jump, ). Additionally, authors caution against methods which adolescents may find especially awkward, such as wearing a digital device like a Jawbone (George et al., ) in certain social settings, or procedures which may be embarrassing (e.g., reluctance to spit into a see‐through vial; Dockray et al., ). As a resourceful solution, scholars might include AA survey items which can be used for imputation of missing data and for planning of future study designs; for instance, van Roekel, Keijsers, and Chung () suggest asking participants to indicate “level of inconvenience” faced at each reporting prompt.…”

“…Indeed, the studies in this special section underscore the critical importance of enhanced knowledge dissemination. Several of the papers advocate for the routine discussion of technical and logistical challenges encountered during AA research, including youth adherence to study protocols, technical difficulties with devices, issues with service coverage, and other unexpected challenges (Dockray et al., ; Duvenage et al., ; George et al., ; van Roekel et al., ). Section authors (Dockray et al., ; van Roekel et al., ) also advocate for open reporting of power (person‐level, day‐level, etc.…”

“…More broadly, “open science” practices, including sharing of program code, survey items, and original study designs and variants from data reported, can inform the field as we seek to replicate and build on trailblazing adolescent AA scholarship. This point is essential so that less‐seasoned scholars seeking to implement adolescent AA can build and broaden, rather than trip over, problems that are regularly encountered in AA studies (Duvenage et al., ; George et al., ; Larson, ; Odgers, ).…”

“…George et al. () examine the reliability of passive sleep duration assessments relative to self‐reports, a critical endeavor given the recent influx of options for commercially wearable devices assessing sleep as well as the importance of sleep for youthful well‐being (e.g., Lewandowski, Palermo, De la Motte, & Fu, ; Matthews, Hall, & Dahl, ). Given that digital daily diaries and ESM cannot (reliably) tap physiological components and are subject to shared‐method variance (e.g., Šimaitytė, Petrėnas, Kravčenko, Kaldoudi, & Marozas, ), these are less than optimal for capturing detailed within‐individuals changes in sleep and well‐being.…”

Why Digital Tools Have Not Yet Revolutionized Adolescent Health Research and What We Can Do

“…The promise was that innovation via digital tools and devices would spur new opportunities for discovery and eventually be leveraged to support people when and where they needed it most (Heron & Smyth, ). A number of the advantages that mobile and wearable devices offered for research have been realized, with excellent examples in this issue of research and findings that would not have been possible with the prior generation of technologies (e.g., Geographically Explicit Ecological Momentary Assessment, Boettner, Browning, & Calder, ; digital wearables for capturing “in vivo” sleep data, George et al., ; and mapping bi‐weekly churning of teen relationships; Goldberg, Koffman, & Tienda, ). But, it would be misleading to claim that digital tools have revolutionized, or even greatly catalyzed, adolescent health research.…”