Handedness and circadian motor asymmetries in humans: preliminary findings.

Previous research studies indicate that a motor activity in the first half of nocturnal sleep is lateralized to the non-dominant hand. It was suggested that such phenomenon may be due to a more pronounced homeostatic deactivation of the dominant hemisphere (referring to the hypothesis of the use-dependent recovery function of sleep). If this were the case we should expect a reversed pattern of motor activity asymmetries between right- and left-handed subjects.

Influence of chronotype, season, and sex of subject on sleep behavior of young adults.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether sex, season, and/or chronotype influence the sleep behavior of university students. Detailed data were collected on activity/rest patterns by wrist actigraphy combined with diaries. Thirty-four medical students (19 female and 15 male) were monitored by Actiwatch actometers for 15 consecutive days in May and again in November.

Actigraphic investigations on the activity-rest behavior of right- and left-handed students.

The aim of this study was to explore differences between left-and right-handed subjects in sleep duration. Sleep and activity patterns were continuously registered for 12 days using actometers on 20 left-handed and 20 right-handed medical students in Berlin. Handedness was determined by a modified version of the Edinburgh handedness inventory.

Actigraphic monitoring of the activity-rest behavior of preterm and full-term infants at 20 months of age.

Differences in the activity-rest behavior of preterm and full-term infants provide an important contribution to the analysis of the ontogeny of circadian rhythms. In this study, we recorded the activity-rest behavior of 17 preterm and 8 full-term infants at the approximate age of 20 months over an average of 10 days by means of actigraphic monitoring (Actiwatch, Cambridge Neurotechnology Ltd.).

Actigraphic recordings of activity-rest rhythms of neonates born by different delivery modes.

Activity-rest behavior of 20 neonates born vaginally, 18 neonates born by medically planned Cesarean section (C-section), and 19 neonates born by medically required C-section after labor onset (all born in the thirty-seventh to forty-second week of gestation) was monitored for six successive days starting in the first week of life. Actigraphy was used to record and show time patterns of activity and rest in neonates by using small wristwatch-like Actiwatch actometers. Nursing/feeding times were recorded by using the actometers' integrated event marker button.