FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Denver, CO – August 2025

The SleepImage® System Powers Landmark Pediatric Sleep Study Published in Frontiers in Neuroscience – “The Promise of Sleep Technology”

A newly published study in Frontiers in Neuroscience reveals how sleep quality evolves across childhood and adolescence, using the FDA-cleared SleepImage® System to collect and analyze the data.

The research, titled “Age‑related and sex‑specific trends in sleep quality in children and adolescents,” analyzed 41,000 nights of pediatric sleep data collected via the SleepImage System, identifying meaningful differences by age and sex in objective sleep quality.

The study was conducted by Hugi Hilmisson, Solveig Dora Magnusdottir MD, MSc, and Robert Joseph Thomas MD, MMSc, and represents one of the largest real-world analyses of medical-grade pediatric sleep quality data to date.

Key Findings Made Possible by SleepImage Data:

• The Sleep Quality Index (SQI), a proprietary and FDA-cleared SleepImage metric, peaked between ages 6–9 and declined progressively through adolescence.
• Girls had higher SQI in preschool years (2–5 years), but the trend reversed during early adolescence (10–13 years), where boys had slightly better SQI. By late adolescence (14–17 years), girls again showed better SQI than boys.
• Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI3%), also increased with age across both sexes but remained consistently lower in girls.
• These findings mirror neurodevelopmental changes identified in smaller studies previously, using PSG. The significance of these findings is that the SleepImage System replicated the same detection of neurodevelopmental changes using scalable, real-world data, collected in a natural, home sleep environment.
  
  

Study Powered by the SleepImage System

The SleepImage System is a software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD) that enabled non-invasive, overnight sleep assessments in the comfort of the participants’ own homes. For this study, it provided:

• High-resolution data from 41,000 nights of sleep in individuals aged 2–17
• Sleep metrics such as the Sleep Quality Index (SQI) and AHI3%, reflecting neurodevelopment changes in children and adolescents during their peak years of growth and development.
• Real-world data collected under standardized quality criteria:
  • ≥6 hours of sleep duration
  • ≥4 hours of total sleep time (TST)
  • ≥80% signal quality

“This study is a testament to how scalable, validated tools like SleepImage can uncover population-level sleep health insights—especially in vulnerable age groups like children and adolescents,” said Dr. Solveig Dora Magnusdottir, co-author and Chief Medical Officer at SleepImage.

Clinical and Scientific Significance

• The data suggest that childhood sleep quality peaks in early school years, then declines through puberty, with different trajectories for boys and girls.
• These normative trends offer a foundation for pediatric sleep health reference curves, much like growth charts used in primary care.
• The ability to screen for early signs of sleep-disordered breathing or poor sleep quality at scale could transform pediatric care and wellness monitoring.
  
  

About SleepImage

The SleepImage System, developed by MyCardio LLC, is an FDA-cleared and CE-marked sleep health solution that provides clinicians and researchers with scalable, cost-effective, and non-invasive tools to measure sleep quality and detect sleep-disordered breathing. Using patented Cardiopulmonary Coupling (CPC) analysis, the system generates clinically relevant and actionable metrics like Sleep Quality Index (SQI) and Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI3%), based on a single-sensor overnight test.

SleepImage enables real-world, objective sleep assessment across populations—from pediatrics to adults—with unmatched scalability and clinical validation.

 

Read the Full Study in Frontiers in Neuroscience

“Age‑related and sex‑specific trends in sleep quality in children and adolescents”
Hilmisson, Magnusdottir & Thomas (2025)
DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1581929

 

---

 

Media Contact

Brittany Schaffler
Interim Director of Marketing & Communications
SleepImage
Email: Media@SleepImage.com
Phone: 720-708-4200