High cardiac vagal control is related to better subjective and objective sleep quality

Gabriela G Werner; Brett Q Ford; Iris B Mauss; Manuel Schabus; Jens Blechert; Frank H Wilhelm

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.02.004

High cardiac vagal control is related to better subjective and objective sleep quality

Biol Psychol. 2015 Mar:106:79-85. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.02.004. Epub 2015 Feb 20.

Authors

Gabriela G Werner¹, Brett Q Ford², Iris B Mauss³, Manuel Schabus⁴, Jens Blechert⁵, Frank H Wilhelm⁶

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Stress and Emotion Lab, Division of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg (Study Institution), Salzburg, Austria. Electronic address: gabriela.werner@sbg.ac.at.
² Emotion & Emotion Regulation Lab, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States. Electronic address: brett.q.ford@berkeley.edu.
³ Emotion & Emotion Regulation Lab, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States. Electronic address: imauss@berkeley.edu.
⁴ Laboratory for Sleep, Cognition and Consciousness Research, Division of Biological Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria. Electronic address: manuel.schabus@sbg.ac.at.
⁵ Clinical Stress and Emotion Lab, Division of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg (Study Institution), Salzburg, Austria; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria. Electronic address: jens.blechert@sbg.ac.at.
⁶ Clinical Stress and Emotion Lab, Division of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg (Study Institution), Salzburg, Austria. Electronic address: frank.wilhelm@sbg.ac.at.

Abstract

Cardiac vagal control (CVC) has been linked to both physical and mental health. One critical aspect of health, that has not received much attention, is sleep. We hypothesized that adults with higher CVC--operationalized by high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV)--will exhibit better sleep quality assessed both subjectively (i.e., with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) and objectively (i.e., with polysomnography). HF-HRV was measured in 29 healthy young women during an extended neutral film clip. Participants then underwent full polysomnography to obtain objective measures of sleep quality and HF-HRV during a night of sleep. As expected, higher resting HF-HRV was associated with higher subjective and objective sleep quality (i.e., shorter sleep latency and fewer arousals). HF-HRV during sleep (overall or separated by sleep phases) showed less consistent relationships with sleep quality. These findings indicate that high waking CVC may be a key predictor of healthy sleep.

Keywords: Heart rate variability; Parasympathetic nervous system; Polysomnography; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia; Sleep quality.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Arousal / physiology
Emotions / physiology
Female
Heart / innervation*
Heart / physiology*
Heart Rate / physiology
Humans
Photic Stimulation
Polysomnography
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia / physiology
Sleep / physiology*
Sleep Stages / physiology
Vagus Nerve / physiology*
Wakefulness / physiology
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding