A novel in-ear sensor to determine sleep latency during the Multiple Sleep Latency Test in healthy adults with and without sleep restriction

Yousef D Alqurashi; Takashi Nakamura; Valentin Goverdovsky; James Moss; Michael I Polkey; Danilo P Mandic; Mary J Morrell

doi:10.2147/NSS.S175998

A novel in-ear sensor to determine sleep latency during the Multiple Sleep Latency Test in healthy adults with and without sleep restriction

Nat Sci Sleep. 2018 Nov 19:10:385-396. doi: 10.2147/NSS.S175998. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Yousef D Alqurashi^{1

2}, Takashi Nakamura³, Valentin Goverdovsky³, James Moss¹, Michael I Polkey⁴, Danilo P Mandic³, Mary J Morrell^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Sleep and Ventilation Unit, Royal Brompton Campus, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK, y.alqurashi15@imperial.ac.uk.
² Respiratory Care Department, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, y.alqurashi15@imperial.ac.uk.
³ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Communications and Signal Processing Group, Imperial College, London, UK.
⁴ National Institute for Health Research, Respiratory Disease Biomedical Research Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service Foundation Trust and Imperial College, London, UK.

Abstract

Objectives: Detecting sleep latency during the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) using electroencephalogram (scalp-EEG) is time-consuming. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a novel in-ear sensor (in-ear EEG) to detect the sleep latency, compared to scalp-EEG, during MSLT in healthy adults, with and without sleep restriction.

Methods: We recruited 25 healthy adults (28.5±5.3 years) who participated in two MSLTs with simultaneous recording of scalp and in-ear EEG. Each test followed a randomly assigned sleep restriction (≤5 hours sleep) or usual night sleep (≥7 hours sleep). Reaction time and Stroop test were used to assess the functional impact of the sleep restriction. The EEGs were scored blind to the mode of measurement and study conditions, using American Academy of Sleep Medicine 2012 criteria. The Agreement between the scalp and in-ear EEG was assessed using Bland-Altman analysis.

Results: Technically acceptable data were obtained from 23 adults during 69 out of 92 naps in the sleep restriction condition and 25 adults during 85 out of 100 naps in the usual night sleep. Meaningful sleep restrictions were confirmed by an increase in the reaction time (mean ± SD: 238±30 ms vs 228±27 ms; P=0.045). In the sleep restriction condition, the in-ear EEG exhibited a sensitivity of 0.93 and specificity of 0.80 for detecting sleep latency, with a substantial agreement (κ=0.71), whereas after the usual night's sleep, the in-ear EEG exhibited a sensitivity of 0.91 and specificity of 0.89, again with a substantial agreement (κ=0.79).

Conclusion: The in-ear sensor was able to detect reduced sleep latency following sleep restriction, which was sufficient to impair both the reaction time and cognitive function. Substantial agreement was observed between the scalp and in-ear EEG when measuring sleep latency. This new in-ear EEG technology is shown to have a significant value as a convenient measure for sleep latency.

Keywords: electroencephalography; excessive daytime sleepiness; in-ear EEG; multiple sleep latency test; sleep onset; sleep restriction.