Posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis is associated with reduced parasympathetic activity during sleep in US veterans and military service members of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars

Sleep
Christi S UlmerAnne Germain

Abstract

To determine whether high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) during sleep differs between those with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a function of sleep type (non-rapid eye movement [NREM] vs. rapid eye movement [REM]), and to explore this relationship across successive sleep cycles. Participants with PTSD were hypothesized to have lower HF-HRV across both REM and NREM sleep. Sixty-two post-9/11 military veterans and service members completed self-report measures of sleep quality, insomnia severity, and disruptive nocturnal behaviors. Participants then completed a laboratory-based polysomnographic study night with concurrent HRV assessment. Participants with PTSD (N = 29) had lower HF-HRV in overall NREM sleep relative to those without PTSD (N = 33) (F(1, 54) = 4.24, p = .04). Groups did not differ on overall HF-HRV during REM sleep. HF-HRV increased over the night for the sample as a whole during both NREM and REM sleep. PTSD status did not moderate the association between HF-HRV and sleep cycles. However, the PTSD group had lower HF-HRV in the first t(155) = 2.67, p = .008, and fourth NREM cycles, t(155) = 2.11, p = .036, relative to participants without PTSD. Findings suggest blunted parasympatheti...Continue Reading

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Jun 5, 2019·Stress : the International Journal on the Biology of Stress·Marlene A WilsonFrancis G Spinale
Oct 24, 2019·Military Medicine·Eric AnJared Rensberger
Jun 16, 2021·Psychological Medicine·Thomas MäderEdward Franz Pace-Schott

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