Attenuated Sympathetic Baroreflex Sensitivity Evoked by Acute Mental Stress but not Prolonged Sleep Restriction in Healthy Adults

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Sleep restriction and psychological stress have both been found to increase the risk of hypertension. To understand how these factors affect blood pressure, the sympathetic baroreflex sensitivity (sBRS) was measured throughout 1) 10 minutes of mental stress and 2) after a period of consecutive sleep restriction. A randomized cross-over study design was used to evaluate these effects in14 healthy, young adults. Continuous muscle sympathetic nerve activity was measured along with continuous realtime blood pressure and heart rate to evaluates RS. Mental stress included 5 minutes of a mental arithmetic task followed by a Stroop color-word test, while sleep restriction testing involved 4 hours of sleep per night for 14 or 19 days with a4-night acclimation period. Acute mental stress appeared to reduce baroreflex function compared to baseline, especially during the initial 5 minutes of mental stress testing. However, sBRS did not show any significant action between restricted sleep conditions and mental stress. This shows that sBRS is attenuated early during mental stress but returns to baseline quickly in young, healthy adults.