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Diurnal variation in the diving bradycardia response in young men

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Abstract

Purpose

The present study aimed to examine diurnal variation of the diving bradycardia responses on the same day.

Methods

Eighteen young men (age 26 ± 2 years; height 174.2 ± 6.0 cm; body mass 70.2 ± 8.1 kg; body fat 18.0 ± 3.8 %; mean ± standard deviation) participated in this study. Oral temperature, heart rate variability (HRV) from 5-min of electrocardiogram data, and diving bradycardia responses were measured at 0900, 1300, and 1700 hours daily. All participants performed diving reflex tests twice in the sitting position with the face immersed in cold water (1.9–3.1 °C) and apnea at midinspiration for a minimum of 30 s and as long as possible, in consecutive order.

Results

Oral temperature was found to be less in the morning (0900) than in the afternoon (1300) and evening (1700). In the frequency domain parameters of heart rate variability, the natural logarithms of high-frequency power were higher in the morning than in the evening. All participants showed bradycardia response to the two diving reflex tests. The peak values of R–R interval during the diving reflex test both for as long as possible and 30 s were longer in the morning than in the afternoon and evening.

Conclusion

Our results indicated that the maximal bradycardia during the diving reflex test exhibits a diurnal variation, with peak levels at morning and gradual decrease towards the evening. The HRV indexes show the same variation.

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Acknowledgments

Heartfelt thanks are due to the subjects who participated in this study and their guardians. This study was supported by The Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan under grant (Grant Nos. 25560376 and 26750340).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama, 359-1192, Japan

    Masayuki Konishi & Shizuo Sakamoto

  2. Faculty of Letters, Kokushikan University, 4-28-1 Setagaya, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, 154-8515, Japan

    Hiroshi Kawano

  3. Graduate School of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama, 359-1192, Japan

    Mi Xiang, Hyeon-Ki Kim, Karina Ando, Hiroki Tabata & Mio Nishimaki

  4. Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 5-3-1 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0083, Japan

    Hyeon-Ki Kim

  5. Japan Institute of Sports Sciences, 3-15-1 Nishigaoka, Kita-ku, Tokyo, 115-0056, Japan

    Mio Nishimaki

Authors
  1. Masayuki Konishi
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  2. Hiroshi Kawano
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  3. Mi Xiang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masayuki Konishi.

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Konishi, M., Kawano, H., Xiang, M. et al. Diurnal variation in the diving bradycardia response in young men. Clin Auton Res 26, 135–140 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10286-016-0342-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10286-016-0342-1

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