Setting quantitative thresholds for detecting insomnia in older persons

摘要

In this issue of JCSM, Levenson et al. describe the results of a comparison of baseline sleep diary and actigraphy data obtained in older insomniacs versus older good sleepers, with the aim of defining severity thresholds for sleep onset latency (SOL), wake time after sleep onset (WASO), sleep efficiency (SE), and total sleep time (TST) that would best separate the two groups.1 The study included older insomniacs (N = 79, mean age 71.7 years) who met both the definition of primary insomnia per DSM-IV and general insomnia per ICSD-2, and older good sleepers (N = 40, mean age 71.8 years) “without clinically significant” sleep complaints.