Abstract

Background: Sleep is a dynamic state of consciousness during which many biochemical, physiological, and psychological changes occur.

Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the relation between sleep and autonomic functions in Gujarati Ethnic adolescents.

Materials and Methods: A non-experimental, cross-sectional study was done on randomly selected 60 voluntarily participating students of our college of age group 17–18 years after the approval of the Human Research Ethics Committee of our institute. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess the sleep parameters. The frequency domain parameters and time domain parameters of heart rate variability were used to assess autonomic functions. The statistical analysis was done using unpaired Student’s t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.

Results: In girls, the low frequency (LF) and total power were significantly high, and in boys, the NN50 count was significantly less in poor sleeper as compared to good sleepers. Sleep duration showed low positive correlation with LF (r = 0.47), LH: high frequency (HF) ratio (r = 0.35), and total power (r = 0.45) in girls, while sleep disturbance showed significant positive low correlation with LF (r = 0.47), LH: HF ratio (r = 0.47), and significant negative correlation with HF (r = –0.47) in boys. While, the daytime dysfunction showed significant low positive correlation with mean HR (r = 0.36) and the PSQI global score showed significant low negative correlation with mean RR (r = 0.36) in boys.

Conclusion: The current study indicates that sleep affects the autonomic functions of the Gujarati Ethnic adolescents.

Key words: Sleep; Heart Rate Variability; Adolescents