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The regulation of heart rate during sleep

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Summary

One group of the experiments was carried out on cats using encéphale isolé preparations, a second group was performed on cats with chronically implanted electrodes. Cortical EEG, electromyogram, ocular movements and electrocardiogram were recorded simultaneously.

Different kinds of heart denervation have been performed in order to study separately the action of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. The following results have been obtained:

The changes in heart rate associated with the different states of sleep and wakefulness are controled by both the sympathetic and parasympathetic section of the autonomic nervous system.

The tonic fall in heart rate during a shift from wakefulness to synchronized sleep is prepondantly caused by an increase in the vagal tonus, whereas the further decrease in heart rate during desynchronized sleep is mainly brought about by a tonically reduced sympathetic discharge.

The phasic increase in heart rate following an arousal is only due to a phasic inhibition of the parasympathetic cardioinhibitory center. The phasic changes in heart rate associated with the bursts of rapid eye movements occuring during desynchronized sleep are caused by changes in the sympathetic and vagal activity as well. A detailed analysis shows that the phasic acceleration is prepondantly due to an inhibition of the vagal activity, whereas the following bradycardia is brought about by a phasic inhibition of the sympathetic output and a simultaneous increase in the vagal discharge.

The results clearly demonstrate that the changes in heart rate related with the different states of sleep and wakefulness are not caused by quantitatively equal antagonistic changes in the activity of the two sections of the autonomic nervous system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurological Clinic, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Walter Baust & Bernd Bohnert

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  1. Walter Baust
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  2. Bernd Bohnert
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This work was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

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Baust, W., Bohnert, B. The regulation of heart rate during sleep. Exp Brain Res 7, 169–180 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00235442

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00235442

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