Heart-rate variability during nocturnal sleep in mentally retarded children.

Heart-rate variability in four normal and 30 mentally retarded children was investigated during nocturnal sleep. In four normal and 25 mentally retarded subjects, a high frequency component defined as spectral activity between 0.15 and 0.5 Hz was found in the compressed spectral array of the power spectra. A periodic change was seen in the high frequency component which corresponded precisely to the sleep cycle. However, four children with mental retardation did not show normally expected changes in the high frequency components specific to the sleep stages: a quantity of the high frequency component in only one sleep cycle (n=2; 6 mo. and 3 yr., 8 mo.), a decreased quantity and discontinuity of the high frequency component in only the second sleep cycle (n=1; 1 yr., 2 mo.), and no high frequency component in any sleep cycle (n=1; 3 mo.) These findings suggest that some mentally retarded children have an abnormal parasympathetic nervous activity.