Night-time voids, level of bother and sleep characteristics in a non-patient population of wearable devices users.

introductionNocturia is a highly prevalent and bothersome medical condition characterised mainly by the need to wake up to pass urine during the main sleep period. Using data from wearable devices, it is possible to examine the sleep of large cohorts in natural settings. This study seeks to use data from connected smartwatches combined with a one-time survey to explore the presence of nocturia and associated level of bother and sleep characteristics in a non-patient cohort of wearable device users representing a broad age range.

methodsThe data used come from a retrospective dataset containing sleep data from Withings watches of 250 000 users and a prospective dataset containing answers to a 10-item questionnaire completed by a subset of users in the retrospective dataset.

resultsThe prospective dataset contained 6230 users. Overall, 6.0%, 15.3% and 38.9% of users in the age groups 18-44 years, 45-64 years and 65-90 years, respectively, reported 2 or more nocturnal voids as their customary voiding pattern, corresponding to levels of nocturia consistent with previous literature. The level of bother associated with nocturia was higher among younger users with 27.8% of users aged 18-44 years reporting that their daytime activity was highly affected versus just 14.1% among those aged 65-90 years. A higher number of reported voids per night was associated with watch-derived measures of a lower sleep efficiency, a longer awake duration at night and a shorter first uninterrupted sleep period.

conclusionThis study suggests not only that nocturia is present among the younger population but also that the younger are more bothered by this medical condition. Using data from wearables it was possible to establish that there is an association between the number of nocturnal voids and sleep characteristics.