Familiarization With Ambulatory Sleep And Blood Pressure Monitoring

Sleep is a life-sustaining action. One necessary event that occurs during sleep is nocturnal blood pressure dipping. Ambulatory sleep and blood pressure monitoring are gaining popularity. However, little is known regarding the reliability of data and the time it takes oneself to familiarize with the equipment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine how many nights of wearing the monitoring equipment were required to restore sleep architecture and blood pressure data to baseline. Eight male and female subjects completed all 3 nights of both sleep and blood pressure readings. The percent of time spent in N1, N2, N3, and REM were not statistically different between nights 1, 2, and 3. Time for wake after sleep onset was not statistically different between nights 1, 2, and 3. Time for sleep latency was statistically greater from night 2 to night 3 (p = 0.042). Percent nocturnal systolic and diastolic blood pressure dips were not statistically different between nights 1, 2, and 3. Cortical and autonomic arousals were not statistically different between nights 1, 2, and 3. Ambulatory sleep monitoring takes 3 nights before the data is reliable and the person is familiarized with the mode of measurement.