ACTIGRAPHIC HOME-MONITORING OF THE SLEEP PATTERNS OF IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION CHILDREN AND THEIR MATCHED CONTROLS

The sleep patterns of 35 in vitro fertilization (IVF) children aged 19 to 57 months and their matched controls were evaluated by actigraphic home-monitoring for three consecutive nights. Actigraphic data were a nalysed by an automated scoring procedure developed in the authors' la boratory. There were no significant differences in activity levels bet ween IVF multiple-birth subjects and their matched controls or between IVF singletons and their matched controls. In contrast, multiple-birt h subjects had higher activity levels during sleep and lower sleep eff iciency than singletons in both IVF and control groups. Sleep measures showed night-to-night stability in all groups.