title: High cardiac vagal control is related to better subjective and objective sleep quality.
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.
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Gabriela G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.affiliation: Emotion & Emotion Regulation Lab, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States. Electronic address: brett.q.ford@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Brett Q
authors.initials: BQ
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.affiliation: Emotion & Emotion Regulation Lab, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States. Electronic address: imauss@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Iris B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Mauss
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schabus
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blechert
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Frank H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation* / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017286:Polysomnography; D065809:Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia / Q000502:physiology; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Heart rate variability; Parasympathetic nervous system; Polysomnography; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia; Sleep quality