0232 Heart Rate is Differentially Altered by Total Sleep Deprivation and Psychological Stress in Resistant vs. Vulnerable Individuals and Predicts Cognitive Performance

• Published in: Sleep (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2019-04, Vol.42 (Supplement_1), p.A95-A95
• Main Authors: Goel, Namni, Dennis, Laura E, Ecker, Adrian J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Heart rate; Sleep deprivation
• ISSN: 0161-8105; 1550-9109
• DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsz067.231

Introduction There are substantial individual differences (resistance and vulnerability) in neurobehavioral deficits from psychosocial stress and sleep loss. However, little is known about whether the time course of heart rate responses across total sleep deprivation (TSD), the combination of TSD and psychological stress, and recovery, differs in resilient vs. vulnerable individuals and whether heart rate predicts individual differences in cognitive performance. Methods Thirty-two healthy adults (ages 27-53; mean ± SD, 35.1 ± 7.1y; 14 females) participated in a five-day experiment consisting of two 8h time-in-bed (TIB) baseline nights, followed by 39h TSD and two 8h-10h TIB recovery nights. A modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was conducted on the day after TSD to induce psychological stress. Heart rate was obtained at six time points during the study (pre-study, at baseline, after TSD, during TSD after the TSST, after recovery, and post-study). The 10-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) measured behavioral attention. Cognitively resistant (n=16) and cognitively vulnerable (n=16) groups were defined by a median split on TSD PVT performance [total lapses (>500 ms response time) and errors]. Repeated measures ANOVA and post hoc comparisons corrected for multiple testing, examined heart rate across time points between groups. Results In resistant individuals, compared with fully-rested conditions, heart rate decreased with TSD and with TSD + psychological stress, and failed to return to baseline with recovery sleep. By contrast, in vulnerable individuals, compared with fully-rested conditions, heart rate increased with TSD and with TSD + psychological stress, and returned to baseline with recovery sleep. Moreover, the cognitively resistant individuals had higher heart rate before TSD than the cognitively vulnerable individuals. Conclusion Heart rate differed between resistant and vulnerable individuals across TSD, psychological stress and recovery sleep and predicted individual differences in cognitive performance, whereby higher heart rate during full-rested conditions predicted resistance to TSD and TSD + psychological stress. As such, heart rate is a viable biomarker of sleep deprivation, psychological stress, and cognitive vulnerability in humans. Support (If Any) NASA NNX14AN49G.