Heart rate changes associated with rhythmic masticatory muscle activities and limb movements in sleep bruxers: Preliminary findings

ABSTRACTObjective: To investigate the relationship of rhythmic masticatory muscle activities (RMMAs) and limb movements (LMs) with heart rate (HR) acceleration.Methods: The amplitude and duration of HR increases, the time to reach peak HR associated with RMMAs/LMs during sleep, duration of movement events, and their relationships with cortical arousal levels were determined in 9 sleep bruxers and 10 normal controls.Results: A total of 48.15% and 49.44% HR increased before the onset of RMMAs/LMs in the sleep bruxers and controls, respectively. All of the parameters of HR increases were significantly different between the sleep bruxers and the controls (p < 0.05–0.001) and between different cortical arousal levels (p < 0.01), and the duration of RMMAs/LMs was positively correlated with the parameters (Sleep bruxers: r2 = 0.18–0.88, p < 0.0001; Controls: r2 = 0.16–0.78, p < 0.0001).Discussion: These data suggest the HR increases are associated with the movement events and changes in cortical arousal levels i...