Sleep stage 2: an electroencephalographic, autonomic, and hormonal duality.

Study Objectives: It is generally thought that the electroencephalogram of sleep stage 2 is not uniform, depending on whether sleep stage 2 evolves toward slow-wave sleep (SWS) or toward rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We provide here further evidence of the duality of sleep stage 2 on the basis of its autonomic and hormonal background.

Participants: Fourteen healthy men (aged 21-29 years) underwent 1 experimental night.

Is slow wave sleep an appropriate recording condition for heart rate variability analysis?

Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis holds increasing interest but electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings are strongly disturbed by body movements, changes in environment and respiration. Here we give arguments for the use of slow wave sleep (SWS) as an appropriate recording condition. Sixteen healthy subjects aged 21-31 years (10 males, 6 females) underwent polygraphic sleep, ECG, and respiratory recordings during one experimental night.

Sleep as a tool for evaluating autonomic drive to the heart in cardiac transplant patients.

Study Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the autonomic drive to the heart in cardiac transplant patients (CTP) using heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV) analysis during non-rapid eye movement (NREM)-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep cycles, in particular during arousal associated with the emergence from slow wave sleep (SWS). In healthy subjects, this arousal is characterized by a pronounced HR surge, and HRV is lower during SWS than during the subsequent "active" sleep stage 2 and REM sleep.

Participants: The participants were 24 adults, 14 CTP (men, n = 11; women, n = 3; mean age, 62.

Circulating endothelin parallels arterial blood pressure during sleep in healthy subjects.

Objective: To characterize plasma endothelin 1 (ET-1) and arterial blood pressure (ABP) time courses during the first complete non-rapid eye movement (NREM)-REM sleep cycle in healthy subjects, together with plasma renin activity (PRA) and plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP).

Methods: Heart rate (HR), intra-arterial blood pressure and sleep electroencephalographic activity were recorded continuously during the night in eight healthy 20-28-year-old males. Blood was sampled every 10 min during their first complete sleep cycle for simultaneous measurements of plasma ET-1, PRA and ANP.

Age-related changes in cardiac autonomic control during sleep.

Aging is commonly associated with decreased sleep quality and increased periodic breathing (PB) that can influence heart rate variability (HRV). Cardiac autonomic control, as inferred from HRV analysis, was determined, taking into account the sleep quality and breathing patterns. Two groups of 12 young (21.

Sleep processes exert a predominant influence on the 24-h profile of heart rate variability.

Adverse cardiovascular events are known to exhibit 24-h variations with a peak incidence in the morning hours and a nonuniform distribution during the night. The authors examined whether these 24-h variations could be related to circadian or sleep-related changes in heart rate (HR) and in HR variability (HRV). To differentiate the effect of circadian and sleep-related influences, independent of posture and of meal ingestion, seven normal subjects were studied over 24 h, once with nocturnal sleep from 2300 to 0700 h and once after a night of sleep deprivation followed by 8 h of daytime sleep from 0700 to 1500 h.