Cardiovascular responses to stress: a potential pathway linking sleep and cardiovascular disease?
Year: 2012
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Reports of short sleep are related to incident cardiovascular (CV) disease. Previous data suggest that changes in basal autonomic activity may be one pathway through which habitually short sleep increases CV risk. No studies have examined whether chronic, moderate sleep loss is related to acute, autonomic responses to stressful stimuli in healthy populations. This study compared CV responses to psychological stressors in a group of undergraduate men reporting habitual sleep duration of ≤6 hours per night (n = 37) versus those reporting habitual duration of 7-8 hours per night (n = 42). Wrist actigraphy was used to assess total sleep time and sleep efficiency based on mobility for one week prior to CV stress testing. Laboratory stress tests included two computer tasks (Stroop color-word interference task and a numeric multisource interference task) and preparation and delivery of a speech while heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were monitored. Reactivity and recovery indices of HR, high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), and BP were created by regressing task and post-task values, respectively, on baseline values. Participants reporting ≤6 hours of sleep per night rated stress tasks as more arousing, and they had delayed HR recovery, compared to those reporting 7-8 hours of sleep; the two groups did not differ in any of the other CV parameters. After adjusting for age, race, body mass index, health behaviors, and psychosocial factors, shorter actigraphy-assessed sleep was related to greater HF-HRV withdrawal during stress tasks, and delayed HR and diastolic BP stress recovery. Decreased actigraphy-assessed sleep efficiency was related to greater HF-HRV withdrawal during stress and delayed HR recovery. Associations between sleep and HF-HRV were independent of respiration rate. Links between sleep and delayed HR recovery were no longer significant after adjusting for actigraphy-assessed daytime naps. In sum, healthy young men with shorter actigraphy-assessed sleep exhibit less vagal inhibition, and prolonged HR and diastolic BP recovery, upon encountering stressful stimuli. Such responses may have pathophysiological CV effects, and, thus, may be one mechanism linking short sleep to CV outcomes.
Author: Elizabeth Mezick
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2288367111