Department of Psychology, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, USA.
J Sleep Res. 2014 Jun;23(3):335-8. doi: 10.1111/jsr.12117. Epub 2013 Dec 24.
The sympathetic nervous system and children's sleep serve critical arousal regulation functions. Shortened pre-ejection period, a reliable indirect index of greater sympathetic nervous system activity, has been associated with reduced sleep duration and quality in adults, but limited evidence exists in children regarding associations between pre-ejection period and sleep. We examined relations between pre-ejection period reactivity in response to a laboratory-based stressor and multiple parameters of actigraphy-based sleep duration and quality in children. The sample included 123 boys and 112 girls [mean age = 11.31 years, standard deviation (SD) = 0.63 years]. Controlling for body mass index, sex and pre-ejection period baseline, increased sympathetic nervous system reactivity, indexed by a lower level of pre-ejection period during the challenge than the baseline, was associated with worse sleep quality indicated by lower sleep efficiency, greater sleep activity and greater long wake episodes. The findings add to a small literature on relations between sympathetic nervous system functioning and children's sleep, suggesting that poor sleep quality is related to dysregulation of this stress response system.
交感神经系统和儿童睡眠对唤醒调节起着至关重要的作用。射血前期缩短，即交感神经系统活动增强的可靠间接指标，与成年人睡眠时间和睡眠质量降低有关，但关于射血前期与睡眠之间的关系，儿童的证据有限。我们研究了儿童在实验室应激源下射血前期反应与基于活动记录仪的多项睡眠持续时间和质量参数之间的关系。该样本包括 123 名男孩和 112 名女孩[平均年龄=11.31 岁，标准差（SD）=0.63 岁]。在控制体重指数、性别和射血前期基线后，交感神经系统反应性增强，表现为挑战期的射血前期低于基线，与睡眠效率较低、睡眠活动较多和长时间醒来的次数较多有关，这表明睡眠质量较差。这些发现增加了关于交感神经系统功能与儿童睡眠之间关系的少量文献，表明睡眠质量差与这种应激反应系统的失调有关。
