Affiliation:
1. Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, Canada
2. Center for Clinical Research in Health, Concordia University, Montréal, Canada
3. PERFORM Center, Concordia University, Montréal, Canada
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Disrupted sleep quality is one of the proposed mechanisms through which chronic stress may lead to depression. However, there exist significant individual differences in sleep reactivity, which is the extent to which one experiences sleep disturbances in response to stress.
Purpose
The aim of the current study was to investigate whether low high-frequency heart rate variability (HRV), as a psychophysiological marker of poor emotional and physiological arousal regulation, predicts stress-related sleep disturbances associated with greater risk of depression symptoms.
Methods
Using a chronic caregiving stress model, 125 mothers of adolescents with developmental disorders and 97 mothers of typically developing adolescents had their resting HRV and HRV reactivity recorded and completed a measure of depressive symptoms, as well as a 7 day sleep diary to assess their sleep quality. A moderated mediation model tested whether sleep quality mediated the association between chronic stress exposure and depressive symptoms and whether HRV moderated this mediation.
Results
After controlling for participant age, body mass index, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and employment status, poor sleep quality mediated the association between chronic stress and depressive symptoms. Resting HRV moderated this indirect effect such that individuals with lower HRV were more likely to report poorer sleep quality in the context of chronic stressor exposure, which, in turn, was related to greater depressive symptoms.
Conclusions
Lower HRV, a potential biomarker of increased sleep reactivity to stress, is associated with greater vulnerability to stress-related sleep disturbances, which, in turn, increases the risk for elevated depressive symptoms in response to chronic stress.
Funder
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
Psychiatry and Mental health,General Psychology
Cited by
50 articles.
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