Sleep deprivation and its effect on an index of cardiac parasympathetic activity in early nonREM sleep in normal and epileptic subjects.
The effect of 24-hour sleep deprivation on cardiac vagal tone during the first 90 minutes of sleep was studied in 16 subjects using a new real-time index of cardiac parasympathetic activity. The level of cardiac vagal tone in subjects who were sleep deprived was more than doubled that in non-sleep-deprived subjects during sleep stage 0 immediately prior to the onset of sleep stage 1. The mean cardiac vagal tone fell significantly (p < 0.01), from a high level of 19.2 arbitrary units of a linear vagal scale (LVS) to 10 units on reaching slow-wave sleep stage 4 in sleep-deprived epileptic subjects, There was a similar fall in cardiac vagal tone from 18.7 units to 12 units in the LVS in sleep-deprived normal subjects, but this was not statistically significant. There was no change in the mean vagal tone of non-sleep-deprived normal subjects. We propose that the cardiac vagal tone can be used as an objective index of sleep propensity.
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, King's College Hospital, London.
R S
RS
Delamont
P O
PO
Julu
G A
GA
Jamal
D000328:Adult; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001285:Atropine / Q000494:pharmacology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010276:Parasympatholytics / Q000494:pharmacology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012892:Sleep Deprivation; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000187:drug effects
D000927:Anticonvulsants; D010276:Parasympatholytics; D001285:Atropine