Bruxism and sleep efficiency measured at home with wireless devices

J Oral Rehabil. 2008 Aug;35(8):567-71. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2842.2008.01875.x. Epub 2008 May 9.

Abstract

The present study comprised 101 (48 men) employees of the Finnish Broadcasting Company with or without irregular shift work, but all with a work week of five shifts in a row followed by 2 days off. The mean age of the subjects was 41.0 years (SD = 9.9). The BiteStrip, a single-use disposable EMG device was used for one night during the work week to detect sleep bruxism. The Actiwatch Plus actigraph was worn on the non-dominant wrist for the entire week to evaluate sleep. Total sleep time and fragmentation index, the latter as a measure of sleep efficiency was calculated for the present study. The BiteStrip scores among the participants were: 0- no bruxism: 52.2% (according to the manufacturer, comparable to a sleep laboratory bruxism count of up to 39 over 5 h), 1- mild: 29.3% (40-74 counts), 2- moderate: 12.0%: (75-124 counts) and 3- severe: 6.5% (>125 counts). Severe bruxers slept less during the work week than non-bruxers (P = 0.009), but severe bruxers slept slightly more than non-bruxers during days off. The group means of the sleep fragmentation index decreased from start towards the middle of the work week and increased during days off (P = 0.016). The levels of the fragmentation indices were consistently higher in accordance with bruxism severity (P = 0.013). It was concluded that bruxism has a coherent relationship with sleep efficiency and it can be detected at home with a low cost device.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Bruxism / diagnosis
  • Bruxism / etiology
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Electromyography / instrumentation*
  • Electromyography / methods
  • Female
  • Home Care Services, Hospital-Based
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Masseter Muscle / physiopathology*
  • Polysomnography
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sleep / physiology
  • Sleep Bruxism / diagnosis*
  • Sleep Bruxism / etiology
  • Sleep Deprivation / complications*
  • Sleep Deprivation / psychology
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Work Schedule Tolerance / physiology*
  • Work Schedule Tolerance / psychology