Luís A. Nunes Amaral

Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics
Professor of Medicine (by courtesy)
Professor of Molecular Biosciences (by courtesy)
Professor of Physics & Astronomy (by courtesy)

Chemical & Biological Engineering
2145 Sheridan Road (Room E136)
Evanston, IL 60208, US
Phone: (847) 491-7850

Sleep-wake differences in scaling behavior of the human heartbeat: Analysis of terrestrial and long-term space flight data

Ivanov PC, Bunde A, Amaral LAN, Havlin S, Fritsch-Yelle J, Baevsky RM, Stanley HE, Goldberger AL
Europhysics Letters 48, 594-600 (1999)
Times cited: 142

Abstract

We compare scaling properties of the cardiac dynamics during sleep and wake periods for healthy individuals, cosmonauts during orbital flight, and subjects with severe heart disease. For all three groups, we find a greater degree of anticorrelation in the heartbeat fluctuations during sleep compared to wake periods. The sleep-wake difference in the scaling exponents for the three groups is comparable to the difference between healthy and diseased individuals. The observed scaling differences are not accounted for simply by different levels of activity, but appear related to intrinsic changes in the neuroautonomic control of the heartbeat.