Quran memorisation and heart rate variability: How do they correlate?

Résumé

BACKGROUND: Heart rate variability (HRV) was shown to be affected by performing religious activities.AIM: To examine the relationship between the level of Quran (the holy book of Muslims) memorisation and HRV among teenagers.METHODS: This experimental study included 16 students and 16 non- students ( = 32). The HRV was measured in three tasks: Recalling familiar verses, memorising new verses, and recalling the newly memorised verses of the Quran. HRV analysis was done using these parameters: Standard deviation of N-N (heartbeat peak) interval; low frequency (LF); high frequency (HF) and LF/HF ratio.RESULTS: There were significant differences between tasks for all parameters ( < 0.05). However, between the groups, only the LF/HF ratio had significant differences, with = 5.04, < 0.05. Pearson correlation showed a moderate positive correlation between the number of pages memorised and the LF/HF ratio ( = 0.61, < 0.05).CONCLUSION: Quran memorisation increased the HRV and our results suggested that this activity could be developed as an effective sympathovagal modulation training activity.