Heart rate variability during sleep and subsequent sleepiness in patients with CFS

[snowathlete]

Togo F, Natelson BH.
Educational Physiology Laboratory, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: tougou@p.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
Abstract

We determined whether alterations in heart rate dynamics during sleep in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) differed from controls and/or correlated with changes of sleepiness before and after a night in the sleep laboratory. We compared beat-to-beat RR intervals (RRI) during nocturnal sleep, sleep structure, and subjective scores on visual analog scale for sleepiness in 18 CFS patients with 19 healthy controls aged 25-55 after excluding subjects with sleep disorders. A short-term fractal scaling exponent (α1) of RRI dynamics, analyzed by the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) method, was assessed after stratifying patients into those who reported more or less sleepiness after the night's sleep (a.m. sleepier or a.m. less sleepy, respectively). Patients in the a.m. sleepier group showed significantly (p<0.05) higher fractal scaling index α1 during non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep (Stages 1, 2, and 3 sleep) than healthy controls, although standard polysomnographic measures did not differ between the groups. The fractal scaling index α1 during non-REM sleep was significantly (p<0.05) higher than that during awake periods after sleep onset for healthy controls and patients in the a.m. less sleepy group, but did not differ between sleep stages for patients in the a.m. sleepier group. For patients, changes in self-reported sleepiness before and after the night correlated positively with the fractal scaling index α1 during non-REM sleep (p<0.05). These results suggest that RRI dynamics or autonomic nervous system activity during non-REM sleep might be associated with disrupted sleep in patients with CFS.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23499514

 

[Enid]

Strange how findings are becoming recognisable now. All to do with autonomic system too. I recall at worst unable to sleep at all upped my Gabapentin to epilepsy levels and slept mosly day and night for about a month. It seemed to restore the deep sleep cycle and left me feeling somewhat better. And I recall ( earlier times) waking to a very slow plodding heartbeat - once waking too not breathing and rushed to an open window to "pump" force lung action. Think this all ties up somehow.

 

[Marco]

"sleepiness"???

 

[Enid]

Yes, I wouldn't describe the black holes nor passings out nor the periods of being "locked in" as sleepiness.

 

[Little Bluestem]

"Sleepiness", just like "fatigue".

 

[ukxmrv]

We need to invent new words to describe the symptoms that patients have. Since I developed ME I'd say that being "tired and sleepy" as I remember them well from before is much less. For example I rarely yawn. The symptoms that I experience are different from these old words.

 

[snowathlete]

I tell my docs that fatigue and sleepiness are completely different. I know because at first I had both, then after sleep study and the right drug as a result, my sleep improved a lot. I still feel sleepy but not nearly as much. Fatigue - unchanged.

 

[Enid]

Well the Docs have to learn nothing to do with their concept (so simple, gets them offf the hook) sleepiness. One could resort to humour though (Docs/Specialists in my own family) past even that.