JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Around 70 million adults in the US develop sleep disturbances annually. Emerging wearable technologies promise to improve sleep quality and duration by regulating the autonomic system and do not have adverse effects compared to pharmacological interventions.

Objective:

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the duration of transcutaneous vibratory stimulation (TVS) delivered by a commercially available wearable device and the extension of total sleep time.

Methods:

This study employed a naturalistic observation design in a community of Apollo TVS and Oura Ring users from January 2019 to May 2022, with 935 users accounting for 30-474,852 nights of observation. The primary outcome measure, total sleep time, was measured by the Gen 2 Oura Ring.

Results:

Most users were 36-64 years old (69%) and male (52%). A linear mixed-effects model revealed that nighttime TVS usage with the wearable was significantly associated with an increase in total sleep time, adding 36 minutes to the baseline sleep of short sleepers who used less than 6 hours of sleep and 240+ minutes of TVS, and was dose-dependent. Extended sleep showed a higher proportion of time spent in rapid eye movement sleep at the expense of light sleep. Although the effect of the wearable’s TVS diminished with higher baseline sleep durations, participants in this category noted an increase in total sleep time. Additionally, nighttime TVS use was associated with a 77% reduction in the odds of having a short total sleep time in individuals with short sleep duration.

Conclusions:

Our study demonstrates that increasing total sleep time through TVS is feasible and can lead to a more consistent, chronic shift in total sleep time. This suggests that TVS is a viable, non-invasive, and non-pharmacological option for individuals struggling with short sleep duration.