Is using smart watches and symptom tracker apps feasible and acceptable?

Poor sleep is common in the general population, but it’s even more common among people living with multiple sclerosis (MS). Sleep problems can have a serious impact on health and quality of life, and there is an urgent need for better treatments that improve both sleep and MS symptoms.

Researchers often assess sleep using survey questions, but these can miss important details. Sometimes activity monitors (similar to research-grade Fitbits) are used, but typically only for a week; this might not be long enough for people with MS, whose symptoms can change from day to day. Despite this variability, researchers don’t usually collect symptom information frequently enough to detect these changes.

This project will focus on getting the basics right by collecting high-quality, meaningful data on sleep in people with MS. Dr Laura Laslett’s research will test whether using activity monitors to track sleep and a symptom-tracking app (MySymptoMS) is practical and acceptable for people living with MS. She aims to find out whether these tools need to be used for longer than a week, whether some people are more likely than others to use them, and whether they provide different or better information than traditional surveys.

These insights will help determine whether these tools should be included in future clinical trials aimed at treating poor sleep in MS.