The Sleep Disorders Channel is supported through educational grants from Alkermes and Takeda.
VJNeurology is an independent medical education platform. Channel supporters have no influence over the production of content.
Sleep Europe 2026 | The effect of sex, chronotype, lifestyle and sleep health on 24-hour heart rate oscillations
Alessandro Colitta, MD, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, discusses a real-world study of healthy individuals investigating how sex, lifestyle, chronotype and sleep health affect 24-hour heart rate oscillations. Dr Colitta explains that sex, chronotype and sleep health were the most prominent modulators, while lifestyle factors had less impact. He explains that females had a consistently higher heart rate, chronotype was linked to a shift in the timing of the 24-hour curve, and better sleep health was associated with a lower heart rate at night. This interview took place at Sleep Europe 2026 in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
These works are owned by Magdalen Medical Publishing (MMP) and are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All rights are reserved.
Transcript
In this particular study, including 245 healthy individuals, we observed that sex, chronotype, and sleep health were the most prominent modulators of 24-hour heart rate oscillations. And this was kind of striking to us as in these models that we fitted, we observed, we included also all the possible determinants of those oscillations in heart rate, including lifestyle factors such as weekly alcohol intake, smoking, or also chronic insomnia disorder and BMI...
In this particular study, including 245 healthy individuals, we observed that sex, chronotype, and sleep health were the most prominent modulators of 24-hour heart rate oscillations. And this was kind of striking to us as in these models that we fitted, we observed, we included also all the possible determinants of those oscillations in heart rate, including lifestyle factors such as weekly alcohol intake, smoking, or also chronic insomnia disorder and BMI. All of these other predictors were less prominent in the modulation of heart rate. Regarding the most prominent modulators, we can say that sex was the most important and with females presenting a constantly higher heart rate across the 24 hours, in parallel, chronotype was related to a shift in the 24-hour curve phase, which is coherent with the circadian preference of the people. And the third most important factor was sleep health, which showed a clear effect by night, with people showing higher sleep health having lower heart rate at night, and surprisingly, higher heart rate in the morning, suggesting being more fit in the morning to face daily activities.
This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.
Read more...
