Objective: Heart rate variability (HRV) is an analytic method of evaluating effects in many exercise trainings. The objective of this study is to evaluate the cardiac autonomic nervous function by different physical trainings after quantitative sleep deprivation caused by mid-term examinations. Methods: There were 49 healthy examinees consisting of students of Chinese Culture University. They received two analyses of five minutes HRV in sitting posture before and after three sets of physical training, including ”massage”, ”massage and relaxation training” or ”Yoga”. Results: The study showed that the very-low-frequency (VLF, 0.003-0.04Hz) power and the ratio of low-frequency to high-frequency (LE/HE) after sleep deprivation dropped significantly. This meant that sleep deprivation would affect the parasympathetic tones and the sympathetic tones. With the interposition of three different physical exercises to the students of sleep deprivation, it revealed VLF increased significantly. The VLF increased most after the ”massage and relaxation training”. It was followed by ”Yoga” and the last one was ”massage”. Conclusion: The study showed that all the three types of physical training could recover the autonomic function after sleep deprivation. Especially, the low intensity of ”massage and relaxation training” which could increase the parasympathetic tone rapidly and reduce the sympathetic tone at the same time.
