Key result
Moderate to severe alcohol use disorder is linked to lower sleep HRV versus social drinkers.
Why the study?
Chronic heavy alcohol use affects the cardiovascular system, but whether HRV metrics are altered during waking and sleeping in alcohol use disorder in daily life remained to be examined.
Does moderate to severe alcohol use disorder reduce heart rate variability during sleep and waking hours compared to social drinking?
Observational (n=26)
Does moderate to severe alcohol use disorder reduce heart rate variability during sleep and waking hours compared to social drinking?
p-value: p=<0.009
Patients with moderate to severe alcohol use disorder exhibit significantly dampened parasympathetic activation during sleep compared to social drinkers, which correlates with depression and sleep difficulties.
AUD-associated lower sleep HRV may signal autonomic effects; leaves open links to CV risk or depression.
Chronic heavy alcohol use profoundly affects the cardiovascular system, contributing to several life-threatening cardiovascular diseases. Heart rate variability (HRV), or the fluctuations in heart rate, reflects dynamic autonomic nervous system processes that change to meet biological demands and environmental challenges. In the current study, we examined whether HRV metrics are altered in alcohol use disorder (AUD) during waking and sleeping with passive biomonitoring as participants went about their daily lives. Social drinkers (standard deviation: n = 10, 5 female) and treatment-seeking individuals with moderate to severe AUD (n = 16, 7 female) provided continuous, real-world heart rate monitoring for 5 days of monitoring on average (M = 5.27 ± 2.22). Five indices of respiration and HRV-respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) amplitude, high frequency (HF), low frequency (LF), HF/LF ratio, root-mean-square standard deviation (RMSSD), and standard deviation of the N-N intervals (SDNN)-were analyzed separately for waking and sleeping hours. Both RMSSD and SDNN decreased the longer the participants were awake (Ps < .013). During sleeping hours, HF, RSA amplitude, RMSSD, and SDNN were significantly higher in light social drinkers as compared to patients with AUD (all Ps < .009), indicating higher parasympathetic activation during sleep in the SD versus AUD group. Sleep and waking HRV measures were significantly correlated with patient-reported symptoms of depression and sleep difficulties in the AUD group (Ps < .05). This natural observational study utilizing continuous autonomic biomonitoring in the real world indicates parasympathetic dysfunction that is clearly detectable during sleep in AUD and HRV measures, which are also related to clinical, patient-related symptoms of AUD.
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Wemm et al. (2023) conducted an observational in Alcohol use disorder (n=26). Moderate to severe alcohol use disorder vs. Social drinkers was evaluated on Heart rate variability metrics (HF, RSA amplitude, RMSSD, SDNN) during sleeping hours (p=<0.009). Patients with moderate to severe alcohol use disorder exhibited significantly lower heart rate variability metrics during sleep compared to social drinkers (all Ps < 0.009).
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