A study published in Frontiers in Neurology on June 10, 2026, investigated the effectiveness of the Watch-PAT 200, a wrist-worn device for home sleep apnea testing, in diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) among individuals with chronic insomnia. Chronic insomnia commonly coexists with sleep apnea, yet the diagnostic capability of home testing devices in such cases had not been thoroughly explored.
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Participants were recruited from a sleep center in Beijing, China, from July 2022 to July 2024. Among the 44 participants analyzed, with a mean age of 49.1 years (41% female), a variety of sleep durations and apnea severity were recorded. The study compared the results from the Watch-PAT 200 with those from standard in-lab polysomnography (PSG).
The Watch-PAT demonstrated a sensitivity of 77.3% and perfect specificity of 100% when identifying moderate-to-severe OSA, based on an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) threshold of 15/h. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was recorded at 0.92. Diagnostic agreement, as per clinical criteria, was achieved in 82% of subjects. However, the device overestimated total sleep time by an average of 19.9 minutes and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep duration by 37.2 minutes.
The study highlights that, while the wrist-worn device shows promise for diagnosing OSA in those with chronic insomnia, caution is advised in interpreting sleep duration and staging data. The findings suggest that the Watch-PAT could serve as an accessible alternative to traditional PSG while acknowledging inherent limitations in its accuracy.
Co-authors include Shi, Luo, Huang, and Xiao, with the research supported by funding from the National High Level Hospital Clinical Research and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities. The study has been conducted in compliance with ethical standards, having received approval from the Research Ethics Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.