Author: Laborde S1,2, Hosang T3,4, Mosley E5, Dosseville F6
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup>Department of Performance Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, Institute of Psychology, 50933 Cologne, Germany. s.laborde@dshs-koeln.de.
<sup>2</sup>Université de Caen Normandie-UFR STAPS, EA 4260 Caen, France. s.laborde@dshs-koeln.de.
<sup>3</sup>Department of Psychology, Helmut Schmidt University, 22043 Hambourg, Germany. hosang@hsu-hh.de.
<sup>4</sup>University of the Federal Armed Forces Hambourg, 22043 Hamburg, Germany. hosang@hsu-hh.de.
<sup>5</sup>Solent University Southampton, Southampton SO14 0YN, UK. emma.mosley@solent.ac.uk.
<sup>6</sup>Université de Caen Normandie-UFR STAPS, EA 4260 Caen, France. fabrice.dosseville@unicaen.fr.
Conference/Journal: J Clin Med.
Date published: 2019 Feb 6
Other:
Volume ID: 8 , Issue ID: 2 , Special Notes: doi: 10.3390/jcm8020193. , Word Count: 230
Breathing techniques are part of traditional relaxation methods; however, their influence on psychophysiological variables related to sleep is still unclear. Consequently, the aim of this paper was to investigate the influence of a 30-day slow-paced breathing intervention compared to social media use on subjective sleep quality and cardiac vagal activity (CVA, operationalized via high-frequency heart rate variability). Healthy participants (n = 64, 33 male, 31 female, M = 22.11, SD = 3.12) were randomly allocated to an experimental or control group. In the experimental group, they had to perform slow-paced breathing for 15 min each evening across a 30-day period. This was administered through a smartphone application. The control group used social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) for the same duration. The night before and after the intervention, their CVA was assessed via a light portable Electrocardiogram (ECG) device, and they had to fill out the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire. Results showed that in comparison to the use of social media, the slow-paced breathing technique improved subjective sleep quality and increased overnight CVA, while a tendency was observed for morning awakening CVA. Slow-paced breathing appears a promising cost-effective technique to improve subjective sleep quality and cardiovascular function during sleep in young healthy individuals.
KEYWORDS: cardiac coherence; cardiac vagal tone; deep breathing; high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV); neurovisceral integration model; parasympathetic nervous system; respiratory sinus arrhythmia; slow breathing; vagal tank theory; vagus nerve
PMID: 30736268 PMCID: PMC6406675 DOI: 10.3390/jcm8020193