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 in the night and high blood pressure.
Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure occurs when the pressure of blood in the arteries is consistently elevated. This means the heart has to pump harder than usual to move blood around the body.
Over time this can cause damage to the organs and blood vessels. It is also a risk factor for a number of other health issues, 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 have an affect on your blood pressure including your age, your weight, smoking, alcohol, genetics, and diet.
But now research has shed light on the link between your sleeping habits and blood pressure. A study, published in Sleep journal, found that men who woke up more often after falling asleep had higher blood pressure than men who woke up less often.
But this association was not found in women. Instead it was discovered that women who spent less time in deep sleep had higher blood pressure than women who spent more time at this stage.
This was the first time the association between sleep and blood pressure had been analysed in relation to gender. « Sleep is critical for overall health and wellbeing, » said Marishka Brown, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at NHLBI.
« Research is beginning to uncover how sleep characteristics, like time spent in each sleep stage or how often one wakes up at night, contributes to blood pressure control, and also how sex and gender may impact these outcomes, but we still have unanswered questions. »
One of the study authors, Kristen Knutson, continued: « We know sleep matters greatly for heart health. So, we’re trying to find out more about this connection, and also how sleep might be linked to the gender differences we see in cardiovascular disease. »
As part of the study, the researchers conducted at-home sleep studies for more than 1,100 adults in Brazil who did not have moderate to severe sleep apnoea. Study participants ranged from ages 18 to 91, and 64 percent identified as women.
As reported by Science Daily, they recorded one night of sleep using a diagnostic test that measures various body 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 just the men and just the women, and also when comparing the men and women.
However, researchers admitted some drawbacks of the study. For example, they not take multiple timepoints for sleep and blood pressure, so could not determine if someone got more or less sleep at any stage, or waking up during the night, actually made blood pressure levels better or worse.
They said future studies would need 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 sleep characteristics could lead to more targeted strategies to help both women and men protect their hearts. Studies such as this continue to reiterate the critical nature of sleep in the clinical management of hypertension. »
According to the NHS adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep a night.
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