The stability of slow‐wave sleep and EEG oscillations across two consecutive nights of laboratory polysomnography in cognitively normal older adults

Abstract

SummaryLaboratory polysomnography provides gold‐standard measures of sleep physiology, but multi‐night investigations are resource intensive. We assessed the night‐to‐night stability via reproducibility metrics for sleep macrostructure and electroencephalography oscillations in a group of cognitively normal adults attending two consecutive polysomnographies. Electroencephalographies were analysed using an automatic algorithm for detection of slow‐wave activity, spindle and K‐complex densities. Average differences between nights for sleep macrostructure, electroencephalography oscillations and sleep apnea severity were assessed, and test–retest reliability was determined using two‐way intraclass correlations. Agreement was calculated using the smallest real differences between nights for all measures. Night 2 polysomnographies showed significantly greater time in bed, total sleep time (6.3 hr versus 6.8 hr, p < 0.001) and percentage of rapid eye movement sleep (17.5 versus 19.7, p < 0.001). Intraclass correlations were low for total sleep time, percentage of rapid eye movement sleep and sleep efficiency, moderate for percentage of slow‐wave sleep and percentage of non‐rapid eye movement 2 sleep, good for slow‐wave activity and K‐complex densities, and excellent for spindles and apnea–hypopnea index with hypopneas defined according to 4% oxygen desaturation criteria only. The smallest real difference values were proportionally high for most sleep macrostructure measures, indicating moderate agreement, and proportionally lower for most electroencephalography microstructure variables. Slow waves, K‐complexes, spindles and apnea severity indices are highly reproducible across two consecutive nights of polysomnography. In contrast, sleep macrostructure measures all demonstrated poor reproducibility as indicated by low intraclass correlation values and moderate agreement. Although there were average differences in percentage of rapid eye movement sleep and total sleep time, these were numerically small and perhaps functionally or clinically less significant. One night of in‐laboratory polysomnography is enough to provide stable, reproducible estimates of an individual's sleep concerning measures of slow‐wave activity, spindles, K‐complex densities and apnea severity.