Monitoring Sleep and Glucose Among University Students

NCT ID: NCT04880629

Last Updated: 2024-09-23

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 131 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-03-03
• Study Completion Date: 2023-12-31

Brief Summary

This study aims to characterise associations between day-to-day sleep, activity, meal schedules, well-being and continuous glucose profiles in a cohort of free-living healthy, young adults. Multi-day data will be collected using wearables and smartphone-based measures in field settings.

Detailed Description

There are two iterations of this study.

In the first iteration (METWI1), wearables and smartphone-based measures are used to characterise free-living sleep, activity, meal schedules, well-being and continuous glucose profiles in a cohort of healthy, young Chinese university students for 4 weeks during the normal school term. While undergoing glucose monitoring (2 weeks), participants consume a standardised meal plan catered by the laboratory to reduce added variance from dietary intake.

Examining relationships between sleep and behavioural characteristics and glucose profiles may contribute to the identification of phenotypes at higher risk of developing metabolic disorders. Data collected in this study may furthermore aid the identification of changes in sleep patterns associated with closer proximity to academic assessments, when students are predicted to experience increased academic workload and stress. Delays and more irregularity in sleep timing, shorter sleep durations and reduced sleep quality are expected closer to assessment dates. These in turn are predicted to result in higher glucose levels and glycemic variability.

In the second iteration (METWI2), in addition to the above measures, participants undergo an oral glucose tolerance test following a night of moderate sleep restriction and baseline sleep (without sleep restriction). This allows us to examine effects of moderate, at-home sleep restriction on glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity.

In terms of sleep monitoring, we additionally aim to validate passive WiFi sensing against measurement of sleep using a commercial sleep and activity tracker (Oura ring), smartphone touchscreen interactions (tappigraphy-based sleep estimation) and sleep diary logs in students who are residing in dormitories. Studying this sample affords a convenient, and privacy protecting way of obtaining WiFi data. This can contribute to establishing whether a combination of multiple data sources for sleep detection can improve accuracy of sleep detection, incorporating the influence of device usage in the peri-sleep period. The secondary goal of this sleep study is the triangulation of sleep detection techniques for long term sleep monitoring on university campus. The hope is to access a larger population of students to infer sleep behaviours and sleep health, and eventually, to develop interventions to improve population health using individualised sleep data.

Conditions

Sleep

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Sleep rectriction

Participants in METWI2 undergo both a baseline (unrestricted) sleep and sleep restriction condition. On the morning following each condition, participants complete an oral glucose tolerance test to measure changes in glucose and insulin following ingestion of a glucose load.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Baseline condition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

In the baseline sleep condition, participants are instructed not to restrict their sleep on the night before completing an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Participants are prescribed sleep-wake timings based on their preferred and averaged sleep durations measured over 2 weeks using a wearable sleep tracker. Sleep timings and durations on the 3 nights before the OGTT are verified using a sleep diary and sleep tracker.

Sleep restriction condition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

In the sleep restriction condition, participants are prescribed sleep timings to restrict their sleep by 1 to 2 hours on the night before completing an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Sleep timings and durations on the 3 nights before the OGTT are verified using a sleep diary and sleep tracker.

Interventions

Baseline condition

In the baseline sleep condition, participants are instructed not to restrict their sleep on the night before completing an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Participants are prescribed sleep-wake timings based on their preferred and averaged sleep durations measured over 2 weeks using a wearable sleep tracker. Sleep timings and durations on the 3 nights before the OGTT are verified using a sleep diary and sleep tracker.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Sleep restriction condition

In the sleep restriction condition, participants are prescribed sleep timings to restrict their sleep by 1 to 2 hours on the night before completing an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Sleep timings and durations on the 3 nights before the OGTT are verified using a sleep diary and sleep tracker.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Chinese
• NUS student residing on campus during semester
• Healthy
• No sleeping disorders/eating disorders/neurological illnesses
• BMI between 18.0 and 24.9

Exclusion Criteria

• Smoker
• Pregnant
• Dietary restrictions
• Not able to collect meals and adhere to provided meal plan, or habitual meals/mealtimes from 3-day food diary deemed unsuitable for provided meal plan
• Moderate to severe depression/anxiety scores from BDI or BAI respectively
• Impaired glucose tolerance

• Minimum Eligible Age: 21 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 30 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National University of Singapore

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Michael W.L. Chee

Principal Investigatore, Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

National University of Singapore

Singapore, (No States Listed), Singapore

Countries

Singapore

References

Ng ASC, Tai ES, Chee MWL. Effects of night-to-night variations in objectively measured sleep on blood glucose in healthy university students. Sleep. 2025 Feb 10;48(2):zsae224. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsae224.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 39325824 (View on PubMed)

Ng ASC, Massar SAA, Bei B, Chee MWL. Assessing 'readiness' by tracking fluctuations in daily sleep duration and their effects on daily mood, motivation, and sleepiness. Sleep Med. 2023 Dec;112:30-38. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2023.09.028. Epub 2023 Sep 28.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37804715 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

METWI

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id