Subjective and Objective Consequences of Stress in Subjects with Subjectively Different Sleep Quality—A Cross-Sectional Study

Beatrice Thielmann, Robin Sebastian Schierholz and Irina Böckelmann
Additional contact information
Beatrice Thielmann: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
Robin Sebastian Schierholz: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
Irina Böckelmann: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: Background: Restful sleep plays an important role in long-term health and occupational safety. Heart rate variability (HRV) is used as stress indicator. The aim of this study was to determine whether HRV at rest or during sleep, as an objective indicator of stress, reflects subjectively assessed sleep quality. Methods: 84 subjects (37.3 ± 15.6 years) were classified into good sleepers and poor sleepers based on the results of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The cut-off value to distinguish between good and bad sleepers recommended by Buysse et al. 1989 is >5. Mental health status was determined using the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). A 24 h electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded for HRV analysis (total and 6 h night phase). Results: The poor sleepers showed a significantly lower mental health status ( p = 0.004). The multifactorial variance analysis of the total phase time parameters Min HR ( p = 0.032, ? 2 = 0.056) and SI ( p = 0.015, ? 2 = 0.072) showed significant interaction effects. In the 6h night phase, significant interaction effects were found for SDNN ( p = 0.036, ? 2 = 0.065) and SD2 ( p = 0.033, ? 2 = 0.067). In addition, there was a significant negative correlation between HRV and stress and a positive correlation between HRV and mental health. Conclusions: Although this study did not demonstrate a direct relationship between sleep quality and HRV, it was shown that there are important connections between sleep quality and mental health, and between HRV and mental health.

Keywords: heart rate variability; autonomic nervous system; sleep quality; stress; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/9990/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/9990/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:9990-:d:641039

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().