Sleep monitoring by actigraphy in short-stay ICU patients

Sleep deprivation is common in ICU patients, but difficult to investigate [1]. The gold standard for sleep monitoring, polysomnography (PSG), is impractical for use in ICU patients [2]. Actigraphy proved to be a good alternative in non-ICU patients [3]. However, in prolonged mechanically ventilated patients, actigraphy was inaccurate, probably due to ICU-acquired weakness and resulting inactivity [2]. Short-stay ICU patients do not suffer from ICU-acquired weakness, and the accuracy of actigraphy in these patients has not yet been studied [4]. The aim of this study was to investigate actigraphy for sleep assessment in short-stay ICU patients.