Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Human Nutrition, Yamaguchi Prefectural University, 6-2-1 Sakurabatake, Yamaguchi, 753-0021, Japan.
J Physiol Anthropol. 2023 Sep 29;42(1):22. doi: 10.1186/s40101-023-00339-y.
We examined whether an aerobic exercise intervention in young women with cold sensitivity symptoms improves sleep quality and decreases cold complaints. Furthermore, we examined the association with increased foot skin temperature (Tsk) before falling asleep and decrease in sensitivity to cold in the brain.
We recruited 16 female adult volunteers who had cold sensitivity and were not engaged in daily exercise training, and they were divided into an exercise group (EXE) and a control group (CON). EXE was given a 2-week exercise intervention that consisted mainly of walking and jogging. Before and after the intervention, temperature sensation and body temperature parameters were measured just before bedtime; electroencephalogram measurements were taken during sleep; and subjective sleep surveys, including Oguri-Shirakawa-Azumi (OSA) sleep inventory (middle-aged and aged version) and visual analogue scale (VAS), were conducted immediately after waking up. All experiments were performed in the winter season.
In EXE, overall and foot warmth and comfort increased (p < 0.05) after the 2-week exercise intervention. The exercise intervention also decreased (p < 0.05) the scores for cold feeling in the fingertips, feet, and toes. In the OSA sleep inventory, factor IV (refreshing) and factor V (sleep length) were increased (p < 0.05) by the exercise intervention. Subjective sleep quality evaluated by VAS increased (p < 0.05) with exercise intervention. The exercise intervention in EXE shortened middle awake time after sleep onset (p < 0.05) and prolonged deep sleep length (p < 0.05). The exercise intervention increased (p < 0.05) alpha-wave power before sleep. In CON, all variables remained unchanged throughout the 2-week control period.
Short-term aerobic exercise alleviated peripheral extremity cold sensitivity symptoms and improved subjective sleep quality. Our findings suggest that these improvements were not due to increased Tsk at rest before bedtime but to decreased sensitivity to cold in the brain that was expressed as increased alpha activity.
本研究旨在探讨有氧运动干预是否能改善年轻女性冷感症状的睡眠质量，减少冷感抱怨。此外，我们还探讨了睡前足部皮肤温度（Tsk）升高和大脑对冷敏感性降低与改善睡眠质量之间的关系。
我们招募了 16 名成年女性志愿者，这些女性均有冷感症状且不进行日常运动训练，她们被分为运动组（EXE）和对照组（CON）。EXE 组接受了为期 2 周的主要以散步和慢跑为主的运动干预。在干预前后，分别在睡前、睡眠期间和刚睡醒后测量温度感觉和体温参数、进行脑电图测量和主观睡眠调查，包括 Oguri-Shirakawa-Azumi（OSA）睡眠量表（中年和老年版）和视觉模拟量表（VAS）。所有实验均在冬季进行。
在 EXE 组中，2 周的运动干预后，整体和足部温暖感和舒适度增加（p<0.05），指尖、足部和脚趾的冷感评分降低（p<0.05）。OSA 睡眠量表中，第四因子（清新感）和第五因子（睡眠时间）在运动干预后增加（p<0.05）。VAS 评估的主观睡眠质量也随着运动干预而提高（p<0.05）。EXE 组的运动干预缩短了睡眠起始后的中间清醒时间（p<0.05），并延长了深度睡眠时间（p<0.05）。运动干预增加了睡前的α波功率（p<0.05）。在 CON 组中，所有变量在 2 周的对照期间均保持不变。
短期有氧运动缓解了外周肢体冷感症状，改善了主观睡眠质量。我们的研究结果表明，这些改善不是由于睡前休息时 Tsk 升高引起的，而是由于大脑对冷敏感性降低导致的 α 活动增加所致。
