Evaluation of three circadian rhythm questionnaires with suggestions for an improved measure of morningness.

Whereas most people require more than 6 h of sleep to feel well rested, there appears to be a group of people who can function well on between 3 and 6 h of sleep. The aims of the present study were to compare 12 naturally short (3–6 h) sleepers (9 males 3 females, mean age 39.6 years, SD age 10.1 years) recruited by a media publicity campaign with age, gender and chronotype matched medium length (7–8.5 h) sleepers on various measures. Measurement instruments included diaries and questionnaires to assess sleep duration and timing, as well as questionnaire assessments of sleep pathology, morningness–eveningness, extroversion, neuroticism, pathological daytime sleepiness, subclinical hypomania, optimism, depressive symptoms, exercise, and work habits. Few measures showed reliable differences between naturally short sleepers and controls except the obvious ones related to sleep duration. There was, however, some evidence for subclinical hypomanic symptoms in naturally short sleepers.

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A sleep diary and questionnaire study of naturally short sleepers

Monk

Buysse

Welsh

et al. 2001

Journal of Sleep Research

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A simple way to measure daily lifestyle regularity

Monk¹,

Frank²,

Potts³

et al. 2002

Journal of Sleep Research

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SUMMAR Y A brief diary instrument to quantify daily lifestyle regularity (SRM-5) is developed and compared with a much longer version of the instrument (SRM-17) described and used previously. Three studies are described. In Study 1, SRM-17 scores (2 weeks) were collected from a total of 293 healthy control subjects (both genders) aged between 19 and 92 years. Five items (1) Get out of bed, (2) First contact with another person, (3) Start work, housework or volunteer activities, (4) Have dinner, and (5) Go to bed were then selected from the 17 items and SRM-5 scores calculated as if these five items were the only ones collected. Comparisons were made with SRM-17 scores from the same subject-weeks, looking at correlations between the two SRM measures, and the effects of age and gender on lifestyle regularity as measured by the two instruments. In Study 2 this process was repeated in a group of 27 subjects who were in remission from unipolar depression after treatment with psychotherapy and who completed SRM-17 for at least 20 successive weeks. SRM-5 and SRM-17 scores were then correlated within an individual using time as the random variable, allowing an indication of how successful SRM-5 was in tracking changes in lifestyle regularity (within an individual) over time.In Study 3 an SRM-5 diary instrument was administered to 101 healthy control subjects (both genders, aged 20-59 years) for two successive weeks to obtain normative measures and to test for correlations with age and morningness. Measures of lifestyle regularity from SRM-5 correlated quite well (about 0.8) with those from SRM-17 both between subjects, and within-subjects over time. As a detector of irregularity as defined by SRM-17, the SRM-5 instrument showed acceptable values of kappa (0.69), sensitivity (74%) and specificity (95%). There were, however, differences in mean level, with SRM-5 scores being about 0.9 units [about one standard deviation (SD)] above SRM-17 scores from the same subject-weeks. SRM-5 scores also deviated more from a Gaussian distribution than did SRM-17 ones. In a study with a sample size of 101, the new SRM-5 instrument yielded scores with a mean of 4.11 and an SD of 1.13. Correlations between lifestyle regularity and age, and between lifestyle regularity and morningness appeared similar whether 5-item or 17-item SRM measures were used. When a gender difference in lifestyle regularity appeared, it was detected by both SRM-5 and SRM-17 measures.

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Circadian preference, sleep and daytime behaviour in adolescence

Giannotti

Cortesi

Sebastiani

et al. 2002

Journal of Sleep Research

617

475

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SUMMAR Y The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between circadian preferences, regularity of sleep patterns, sleep problems, daytime sleepiness and daytime behaviour. As a part of an epidemiological survey on sleep in a representative sample of Italian high-school students, a total of 6631 adolescents, aged 14.1-18.6 years, completed the School Sleep Habits Survey, a comprehensive questionnaire including items regarding sleep, sleepiness, substance use, anxiety and depressed mood, use of sleeping pills, school attendance and a morningness ⁄ eveningness scale. The sample consisted of 742 evening-types (315 males and 427 females; mean age 17.1 years) and 1005 morningtypes (451 males and 554 females; mean age 16.8 years). No significant sex differences were found for morningness ⁄ eveningness score. Eveningness was associated with later bedtime and wake-up time, especially on weekends, shorter time in bed during the week, longer weekend time in bed, irregular sleep-wake schedule, subjective poor sleep. Moreover, evening types used to nap more frequently during school days, complained of daytime sleepiness, referred more attention problems, poor school achievement, more injuries and were more emotionally upset than the other chronotype. They referred also greater caffeine-containing beverages and substances to promote sleep consumption. Our results suggest that circadian preference might be related not only to sleep pattern, but also to other adolescent behaviours.k e y w o r d s chronotype, sleep, daytime behaviour, adolescence, epidemiology

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Evaluation of three circadian rhythm questionnaires with suggestions for an improved measure of morningness.

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A sleep diary and questionnaire study of naturally short sleepers

A sleep diary and questionnaire study of naturally short sleepers

A simple way to measure daily lifestyle regularity

Circadian preference, sleep and daytime behaviour in adolescence

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