The effect of clothing on "diving bradycardia" in man during submersion in cold water

Eighteen healthy male volunteers undertook three seated submersions into stirred water at 5°C. Whilst submerged, the subjects attempted to hold their breath for 20 s. They wore a different clothing assembly for each submersion, viz: a cotton overall assembly, a "wet suit" assembly and a "dry suit" assembly. During the experiments the breath-hold time, heart rate, skin and rectal temperatures of the subjects were recorded. The results showed that significantly (P<0.05) more subjects developed a diving bradycardia - defined as five or more consecutive R-R intervals of over 1.2 s - when wearing the dry suit. It is concluded that increasing the cold stress experienced by individuals during cold-water submersion decreases the incidence of diving bradycardia but not the magnitude of the bradycardia when it occurs.