Sleep warning as a common nighttime habit linked to high blood pressure

Experts have issued a warning about sleep as a common nighttime habit has been linked to a dangerous health condition. A new study found an increased risk between waking up at night and high blood pressure.

Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure occurs when the blood pressure in the arteries is constantly elevated. This means that the heart has to pump harder than usual to move blood through the body.

Over time, this can cause damage to organs and blood vessels. It is also a risk factor for other health problems, such as heart attacks and strokes.

Therefore, it is important to keep your blood pressure levels within a healthy level, if possible. Several things can affect your blood pressure, including age, weight, smoking, alcohol, genetics, and diet.

But now research has shed light on the link between sleep habits and blood pressure. A study, published in sleep diaryfound that men who woke up more frequently after falling asleep had higher blood pressure than men who woke up less frequently.

But this association was not found in women. Instead, women who spent less time in deep sleep were found to have higher blood pressure than women who spent more time in this stage.

This was the first time the association between sleep and blood pressure was analyzed in relation to gender. “Sleep is critical to overall health and well-being,” said Marishka Brown, director of NHLBI’s National Sleep Disorders Research Center.

“Research is beginning to uncover how sleep characteristics, such as the time spent in each stage of sleep or how often one wakes up at night, contribute to blood pressure control, and also how sex and gender may affect these results, but we still have unanswered questions.”

One of the study’s authors, Kristen Knutson, continued: “We know that sleep is very important for heart health. So we are trying to find out more about this connection and also how sleep might be related to differences in heart health. type that we see in cardiovascular diseases. disease.”

As part of the study, researchers conducted home sleep studies of more than 1,100 adults in Brazil who did not have moderate to severe sleep apnea. Study participants ranged in age from 18 to 91, and 64 percent identified as women.

As reported by daily scienceThey recorded a night of sleep using a diagnostic test that measures various bodily functions, such as brain waves and heart rate during sleep, using sensors placed throughout the body. In the morning, they took blood pressure readings and fasting blood samples to measure lipid levels.

More specifically, these levels were total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. The team found differences in blood pressure when comparing the sleep experiences of only men and women, and also when comparing men and women.

However, the researchers admitted some drawbacks to the study. For example, they don’t take multiple time points for sleep and blood pressure, so they couldn’t determine whether someone slept more or less at any stage, or whether waking up during the night actually improved or worsened blood pressure levels.

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They said future studies would be needed to test whether changing these sleep stages in men and women leads to changes in blood pressure levels. Ms Brown added: “This study suggests that a better understanding of how specific characteristics of sleep could lead to more targeted strategies to help both women and men protect their hearts. Studies like this continue to reiterate the critical nature of sleep. in the clinical management of hypertension.”

According to the NHS, adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night.