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Scaling exponent values as an ordinary function of the ratio of very low frequency to high frequency powers in heart rate variability over various sleep stages

  • Sleep Breathing Physiology and Disorders • Original Article
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Abstract

Purpose

To assess the physiological meanings of the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) slope α and its relationship to spectral measures in heart rate variability, this study investigated changes of α and its corresponding spectral measures over various night-sleep stages.

Methods

The overall DFA α and natural-logarithm-transformed power values of the spectral parameters ln[high-frequency (HF)], ln[low-frequency (LF)], and ln[very-low-frequency (VLF)], and their relationship from one 5-min proper electrocardiography segment in each of pre-sleep-wakefulness (AWK), non-rapid eye movement stage 2 (N2), slow-wave (N3), the first and the latest rapid-eye movement sleep (REM1, and REM2), were computed in 93 otherwise healthy males (44.1 ± 7.7 years.) with wide-ranged apnea-hypopnea, periodic-limb movement and arousal indices (19.0 ± 20.9, 4.7 ± 9.9, and 10.7 ± 18.2 h, respectively).

Results

While ln(HF) dipped from AWK, N2, and N3 to REM1 then rebounded to the origin level at REM2, ln(VLF) dipped from AWK to N2, N3 trough, and then surged to levels surpassing AWKs and N2s at REM1 and REM2. ln(LF/HF), ln(VLF/HF), and α dipped from AWK and N2 to N3 trough, surged to levels surpassing AWKs, and N2s at REM1 then became attenuated at REM2. By general linear modeling, the relationship between α and the corresponding spectral values can be seen over various stages as α = b 0 + 0.147 × ln(VLF/HF) (R 2 = 0.766), regardless of age and sleep-sympathoexcitatory episodes.

Conclusion

The REM sleep attenuations appeared in ln(HF) and its derivatives, such as ln(LF/HF), ln(VLF/HF), and the overall DFA slope α values. The quantitative function of ln(VLF/HF) describes the α values constantly for overnight sleep stages, and it is not affected by age, LF, PLM, and AHI. Our findings therefore suggest that in sleep studies with spectral HRV measures, ln(VLF/HF) as a surrogate of the overall DFA slope α should be calculated at the same time.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Tim Williams for his support throughout the editing process.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Image and Radiological Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Ren-Jing Huang & Yu-Pin Chen

  2. Department of Applied Information Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Ching-Hsiang Lai

  3. Department of Physical Therapy, Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Shin-Da Lee

  4. Department of Occupational Therapy, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Shin-Da Lee

  5. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, 110, Sec. 1, Jianguo N. Rd, Taichung, 40201, Taiwan

    Wei-Che Wang, Ling-Hui Tseng & Hua Ting

  6. Sleep Medicine Center, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, 110, Sec. 1, Jianguo N. Rd, Taichung, 40201, Taiwan

    Shen-Wen Chang, Ai-Hui Chung & Hua Ting

  7. Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, 110, Sec. 1, Jianguo N. Rd, Taichung, 40201, Taiwan

    Hua Ting

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  1. Ren-Jing Huang
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Correspondence to Hua Ting.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human.

participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Funding

The National Science Council, Taiwan provided financial support in the form of 98–2314-B-040-001-MY3 funding.

Taiwan Department of Health Clinical Trial and Research Center of Excellence provided financial support in the form of DOH102-TD-B-111-004 funding.

Additional information

Ren-Jing Huang, Ching-Hsiang Lai and Shin-Da Lee this authors contributed equally

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Huang, RJ., Lai, CH., Lee, SD. et al. Scaling exponent values as an ordinary function of the ratio of very low frequency to high frequency powers in heart rate variability over various sleep stages. Sleep Breath 20, 975–985 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-016-1320-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-016-1320-5

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