Mobile apps for sleep tracking were identifed by searching the Apple iTunes Store and Android Google Play store using mobile devices. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the perceived behavioural changes associated with sleep health applications. Moreover, assessment of available applications is necessary to guide physician recommendations of sleep tracker apps for patient use. However, the severe lack of validation studies raises concerns around their use and limits their function as alternatives to standard clinical tools. In addition, they may help increase awareness and promote help seeking regarding sleep-related issues. Sleep health application may be valuable for user self-management and improvement of sleep hygiene. Moreover, a drop in reliability was commonly seen in clinical populations compared to healthy users, a trend also seen with conventional actigraphy 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. Most applications have shown good correlation to wrist actigraphy but not PSG. Parameters assessed in validation studies included sleep onset latency, total sleep time, snoring events, sleep stages, and sleep efficacy. A few health trackers were compared to standard sleep assessment tests including polysomnography (PSG), wrist actigraphy, and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) 24. Other applications were designed to assist healthcare professionals in monitoring and screening their patients for habitual snoring and obstructive sleep apnea 23. These applications provide a wide range of functions, including smart alarms, sleep aids, sound recording during sleep, and analysis of sleep. Thus, their use remains a concern due to the lack of validation studies 1, 22. However, and unlike accelerometry used in standard sleep assessment tools (e.g., actigraphy), mobile accelerometer operates via undefined and varying algorithms. Most of the available sleep tracking apps are accelerometer-based and can employ built-in mobile sensors such as microphones and light detectors to obtain sleep data 1. With increased mobile phone ownership on a global scale, a rapid development in mHealth technologies allows users to self-monitor and visualize their sleep patterns, symptoms, and behavioural data and aid them in taking appropriate actions on a potentially daily basis 22. Self-management applications on a smartphone have been advocated as a means to help people with sleep disturbance to achieve better levels of sleep control and better sleep quality outcomes. Interestingly, the mHealth apps grew from 43,689 in 2013 to 90,088 in 2015 21. Patients, as consumers, have a great need for mobile health (mHealth) applications that can help them with their medication adherence, as suggested by the 106% increase of iOS mHealth apps available to the public from 2013 to 2015. Mobile devices have become an inspirational and integral part of modern living, by being typically customized to the specific needs of individuals, creating deep personal relationships with their users 20. Thus, getting enough sleep with good quality is important for human health and well-being.Įlectronic health (eHealth) literacy is defined as “the ability of people to use emerging information and communications technologies to improve or enable health and health care” 19. On the long-term, sleep disturbances not only cause poor activity, fatigue, and decreased cognitive performance, but also increase the risk of early mortality, and several comorbid conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cancer, and depression 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. The characteristics of normal healthy sleep are a sufficient duration with regular and appropriate timing, and good quality in the absence of disorders and disturbances related to sleep 2. ![]() Sleep problems are widely prevalent, including deficiency in sleep quantity and quality and disturbance of sleep continuity, collectively referred to as sleep disruption. On the other hand, adults aged 65 years or older should sleep for 7-8 hours daily, not exceeding 9 hours and not getting less than 5 hours of sleep 2. It plays a critical role in different brain functions, such as facilitating memory consolidation, impacting cognitive and neurobehavioral performance, mood regulation, and subserving the brain clearance of various toxic waste products 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.Īccording to the National Sleep Foundation, young adults aged between 18-25 years and adults aged 26 to 64 years should optimally have 7-9 hours of sleep. Therefore, sleep is considered a vital component of human life and essential for a person’s health and well-being. Even prehistoric evidence suggests the importance of sleep in human life, which is consistent with archaeological and historical accounts of sleep having a prominent and important role even in early human societies 1, 2. Sleep occupies between 20% and 40% of the human day.
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