Mount Sinai researchers have conducted a study using wearable technology to examine the relationship between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and sleep disruption. This research, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, is the first to utilize wearable devices to assess how inflammation and symptoms of IBD affect sleep patterns over time.
The study revealed that significant changes in sleep metrics, such as reduced REM sleep and increased light sleep, occur only when inflammation is present. Symptoms alone did not lead to notable sleep disruptions. These findings suggest that alterations in sleep may signal impending disease flare-ups.
IBD includes conditions like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, characterized by digestive tract inflammation. Flare-ups can cause symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, and bleeding. However, these symptoms might also appear without inflammation.
Patients with IBD frequently report poor sleep. Previous studies mostly relied on short-term data and subjective assessments to evaluate sleep impairments, leaving unclear whether changes were due to symptoms or underlying inflammation.
In this study, over 100 participants with IBD wore devices like Apple Watches, Fitbits, and Oura Rings for more than seven months on average. The researchers collected data on sleep stages, time spent asleep while in bed, total hours asleep, daily symptom surveys, and laboratory inflammation markers.
Significant changes in REM sleep occurred only with body inflammation. The team mapped objective sleep patterns before, during, and after disease exacerbations using wearable technology. They analyzed data six weeks before and after flare episodes. Sleep disturbances worsened leading up to inflammatory flares but improved afterward.
“This is the first study to longitudinally map objective sleep patterns before, during, and after IBD flares using wearable technologies—offering a new, non-invasive way to monitor disease activity and explore how poor sleep and inflammation are connected,” said Robert Hirten, MD of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Our findings are crucial because they suggest that poor sleep may be related to active inflammatory disease even when patients are not reporting symptoms.”
The study demonstrates the potential for continuous observation of sleep using consumer-grade wearables for real-time disease monitoring. Traditionally invasive testing methods could be replaced by these devices in future monitoring practices. Beyond IBD implications, this research highlights the broader capability of wearables in capturing subtle physiological changes associated with chronic diseases—a step forward in precision medicine.
The National Institutes of Health supported this study through a grant (K23DK129835).
