Assessing infant sleep quality and arousals: comparison of wearable data with parent perspectives

Infant sleep assessments typically rely on parent's subjective reports rather than objective measurements of the infant's sleep. This study addresses a critical gap by comparing parental reports of infant sleep with high-resolution, objective measurements from the novel NAPPA (NAPping PAnts) wearable, demonstrating its feasibility for at-home use. Specifically, we show that parentally reported nighttime events, such as sleep quality or infant arousals, only partially reflect the infant's actual sleeping behaviour. Our findings highlight the importance of measuring infant sleep objectively, and the novel methodology opens new research avenues that may guide sleep health interventions.