I THINK THAT’S WHAT I SLEPT: COMPARING THE DISCREPANCY BETWEEN SELF-REPORTED AND OBJECTIVELY MEASURED SLEEP AT HOME AND IN THE LABORATORY

Abstract

Previous research has found that patients diagnosed with insomnia tend to over report how long it takes them to fall asleep and underreport their total sleep time as compared to objective measures of sleep, a phenomenon called sleep-state misperception. Although sleep-state misperception has been observed in home and laboratory settings, it is unclear if the magnitude of the discrepancy between self-reported and objectively measured sleep differs depending on sleep location. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the difference between self-reported and actigraphy measured sleep varied depending on sleep location, and if these differences were due to differences in pre-sleep arousal between the home and the laboratory. Although differences in pre-sleep arousal did not predict differences between sleep-state misperception at home and in the laboratory, results demonstrated that sleep-state misperception is present in both home and laboratory settings and that estimates of sleep-state misperception based on one night of laboratory data may over-estimate the severity of the problem. Therefore, researchers and clinicians should consider how the method and location of sleep assessment they use in their studies and clinical practice impacts sleep and the results of research and clinical assessments.