title: Cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress following sleep deprivation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Psychological stress and sleep disturbances are highly prevalent and are both implicated in the etiology of cardiovascular diseases. Given the common co-occurrence of psychological distress and sleep disturbances including short sleep duration, this study examined the combined effects of these two factors on blood pressure reactivity to immediate mental challenge tasks after well-rested and sleep-deprived experimental conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants (n = 20) were healthy young adults free from current or past sleep, psychiatric, or major medical disorders. Using a within-subjects crossover design, we examined acute stress reactivity under two experimental conditions: after a night of normal sleep in the laboratory and after a night of total sleep deprivation. Two standardized psychological stress tasks were administered, a Stroop color-word naming interference task and a speech task, which were preceded by a prestress baseline period and followed by a poststress recovery period. Each period was 10 minutes in duration, and blood pressure recordings were collected every 2.5 minutes throughout each period. Mean blood pressure responses during stress and recovery periods were examined with a mixed-effects analysis of covariance, controlling for baseline blood pressure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a significant interaction between sleep deprivation and stress on systolic blood pressure (F(2,82.7) = 4.05, p = .02). Systolic blood pressure was higher in the sleep deprivation condition compared with the normal sleep condition during the speech task and during the two baseline periods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sleep deprivation amplified systolic blood pressure increases to psychological stress. Sleep loss may increase cardiovascular risk by dysregulating stress physiology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. franzenpl@upmc.edu
authors.forename: Peter L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Franzen
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Gianaros
authors.forename: Anna L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Marsland
authors.forename: Martica H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Greg J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Siegle
authors.forename: Ronald E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dahl
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Buysse
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017286:Polysomnography; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D057190:Stroop Test; D055815:Young Adult