Handedness Correlates with Actigraphically Measured Sleep in a Controlled Environment

Abstract

The relationship between hand preference and duration of sleep was assessed in 40 healthy subjects using self-report estimates, sleep diaries, and wrist activity monitors during an uncontrolled 7-day at-home phase and during a controlled overnight stay in a sleep laboratory. Handedness was unrelated to any index of sleep duration when assessed in the unregulated home environment. In the controlled environment of the laboratory, however, greater right-hand dominance was positively correlated with more minutes of obtained sleep and greater sleep efficiency. Findings were consistent with previous reports which suggest measures of brain lateralization may be related to sleep and health but further suggest that these relationships may be easily obscured by extraneous environmental factors when assessed in an uncontrolled setting.

Non-Right Handedness is Associated with More Time Awake After Sleep Onset and Higher Daytime Sleepiness Than Right Handedness: Objective (Actigraphic) and Subjective Data from a Large Community Sample

“…Our findings also do not show a homogenous picture. Overall, however, direction and degree of handedness (the more right-handed and the more lateralized) were associated with better objective sleep, being roughly in line with the results of one of the studies 11 but not of the others. 8 , 10 …”

“…So far, there are only 11 studies on the association between handedness and sleep. Four of them used objective measuring techniques (actigraphy 8–11 with one study additionally comparing with polysomnography and self-report 11 ) while seven only used self-reports. 4 , 12–16 , 55 …”

“…Results were inconsistent: One study reported right-handedness to be associated with longer total sleep time (TST) and higher sleep efficiency (SE). 11 Another study reported left-handedness to be associated with longer sleep duration with no significant differences in sleep onset latency (SOL) or SE. 10 Propper et al reported in a first study, investigating sleep depending on the degree of handedness, a higher degree of handedness (ie consistently handed individuals) to be associated with longer SOL and lower SE in women.…”

“…Overall, lower degrees of lateralization were associated with objectively better sleep including a shorter sleep onset latency (SOL), 8 a higher sleep efficiency (SE) 8 and more N-REM sleep. 8 , 9 Elsewhere, left-handedness was associated with longer 10 or shorter total sleep time (TST) 11 and lower SE. 11 In contrast to objective sleep characteristics, lower degrees of lateralization were associated with subjectively impaired sleep, eg a shorter TST 12 or more awakenings.…”

“… 8 , 9 Elsewhere, left-handedness was associated with longer 10 or shorter total sleep time (TST) 11 and lower SE. 11 In contrast to objective sleep characteristics, lower degrees of lateralization were associated with subjectively impaired sleep, eg a shorter TST 12 or more awakenings. 13 Similarly, left-handedness was associated with more awakenings 4 and lower TST.…”