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There have been limited studies of the validation of actigraphy for the determination of sleep and wake in children and in this study we aimed to compare wrist actigraphy with polysomnography (PSG). We studied 45 children (29 M/16 F), aged between 1 and 12 years (5.8 ± 2.7 years, mean ± SD). Actigraphic data were collected during standard overnight PSG. Data from the actiwatch were analysed over four separate activity threshold settings (low, medium, high, auto). Actigraphic data were compared epoch‐by‐epoch with the matching PSG. Sleep time was not different from PSG values for the low or auto activity thresholds, but was significantly less on the medium and high activity thresholds (P < 0.05). In contrast, the low and auto activity thresholds significantly underestimated wake time (P < 0.05), whilst that recorded on the medium and high activity thresholds were not different to PSG values …