Reduced heart rate variability during sleep in long-duration spaceflight

Limited data are available to describe the regulation of heart rate (HR) during sleep in spaceflight. Sleep provides a stable supine baseline during preflight Earth recordings for comparison of heart rate variability (HRV) over a wide range of frequencies using both linear, complexity, and fractal i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology integrative and comparative physiology, 2013-07, Vol.305 (2), p.R164-R170
Main Authors: Xu, D, Shoemaker, J K, Blaber, A P, Arbeille, P, Fraser, K, Hughson, R L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Astronauts
Blood Pressure - physiology
Electrocardiography
Female
Heart rate
Heart Rate - physiology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Sleep
Sleep - physiology
Space exploration
Space Flight
Weightlessness
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Summary:Limited data are available to describe the regulation of heart rate (HR) during sleep in spaceflight. Sleep provides a stable supine baseline during preflight Earth recordings for comparison of heart rate variability (HRV) over a wide range of frequencies using both linear, complexity, and fractal indicators. The current study investigated the effect of long-duration spaceflight on HR and HRV during sleep in seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station up to 6 mo. Measurements included electrocardiographic waveforms from Holter monitors and simultaneous movement records from accelerometers before, during, and after the flights. HR was unchanged inflight and elevated postflight [59.6 ± 8.9 beats per minute (bpm) compared with preflight 53.3 ± 7.3 bpm; P < 0.01]. Compared with preflight data, HRV indicators from both time domain and power spectral analysis methods were diminished inflight from ultralow to high frequencies and partially recovered to preflight levels after landing. During inflight and at postflight, complexity and fractal properties of HR were not different from preflight properties. Slow fluctuations (
ISSN:0363-6119
1522-1490
DOI:10.1152/ajpregu.00423.2012