Pilot Study for Estimating Physical Fatigue Based on Heart Rate Variability and Reaction Time

摘要

The aim of this study was to evaluate how heart rate variability (HRV) and reaction time differ when measured in the morning and in the evening of one physically exhausting day in order to explore if these parameters would be sufficient for estimating physical fatigue accumulated during one day. Five different experiment days with fixed schedules were conducted which consisted of measurement set in the morning, physical exercise during the day and measurement set in the evening. The total average reaction time was lower in the morning (228 ±18 ms) compared to the values measured in the evening (257 ± 22 ms). Both assessed HRV parameters SDNN and RMSSD showed a tendency to decrease during the day (total averages were respectively 61 ± 6 ms and 40 ± 6 ms in the morning vs 37 ± 4 ms and 24 ± 3 ms in the evening). This decrease was more prominent in the heart rate recovery phase compared to the resting heart rate. The results of this study give promising results for new methods for estimating daily physical fatigue and could be a basis for multiple future studies.