Bruxism and sleep efficiency measured at home with wireless devices

Summary 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.