This experimental setup allowed the researchers to directly monitor whether the sound simulation enhanced deep sleep and whether it influenced the subjects' heart rate and blood pressure. A feedback mechanism ensured that the noise was played at the right time and-depending on the brain wave pattern-stopped again. Ten seconds of such tones were followed by 10 seconds of silence, and then the same procedure could be repeated. They coupled their measurements to a computer system that analyzed the incoming data.Īs soon as the readings indicated that the subject had fallen into deep sleep, the computer played a series of very brief tones at certain frequencies, called pink noise, which sound like static. While the subjects slept, the scientists continuously measured their brain activity, blood pressure and heart activity. On two nights, the researchers stimulated the subjects with sounds on one night, they did not. The study involved 18 healthy men aged 30 to 57, who spent three non-consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory. "We clearly saw that both the heart's pumping force and its relaxation were greater after nights with stimulation compared to nights without stimulation." Both factors are an excellent measure of cardiovascular system function. Heart specialist Schmied is also delighted. But the fact that this effect was so clearly measurable after just one night of stimulation surprised us," explains project leader and sleep expert Caroline Lustenberger, SNSF Ambizione Fellow at the Neural Control of Movement Lab at ETH Zurich. "We were expecting that stimulation with tones during deep sleep would impact the cardiovascular system. The corresponding study was recently published in the European Heart Journal. This is the first time anyone has shown that an increase in brain waves during deep sleep (slow waves) improves cardiac function. This increases blood flow, which has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system.Īn interdisciplinary team of heart specialists led by Christian Schmied, Senior Consultant for Cardiology at the University Hospital Zurich, used echocardiography (cardiac ultrasound examinations) to demonstrate that the left ventricle undergoes more intense deformation after nocturnal stimulation. The more immediate and more powerful this wringing action, the more blood enters the circulation and the less remains in the heart. When the heart contracts, the left ventricle is squeezed and wrung out like a wet sponge. The left ventricle supplies most organs, the extremities, and the brain with oxygen-rich arterial blood. As a result, it pumps blood into the circulatory system and draws it out again more efficiently. Recently, researchers at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich have shown that increased deep sleep is of particular benefit to the cardiovascular system: targeted stimulation with brief tones during deep sleep causes the heart-in particular the left ventricle-to contract and relax more vigorously.
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