A high-salt diet, obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, alcohol use, family history, and even race are considered risk factors for high blood pressure. A recent study showed that sleep disturbances – lack of it at night, apnea – increase the risk of developing high blood pressure.

Until now, it was only suspected that sleep disorders cause high blood pressure. The less you sleep, the more your blood pressure can rise, Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez of the Mayo Clinic wrote last year in an answer to the question “Is it true that lack of sleep can cause blood pressure?”. Sleep is thought to help the body manage hormones needed to control stress and metabolism. Over time, lack of sleep can cause hormonal disruptions. This can lead to high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease, the doctor explains.

A new study shows that sleep disturbances can increase blood pressure

Doctors at Brighan and Woman’s Hospital in Boston conducted a study involving 66,122 women aged 25 to 42. None of the participants had high blood pressure in 2001 when they entered the study. The researchers followed the health of the participants for 16 years, assessing blood pressure every two years.

Thus, during this period, researchers observed 25,987 cases of increased blood pressure. They took into account the lifestyle and demographic risk factors of these participants. Thus, they found that registered hypertension is associated with insufficient sleep, as well as with other sleep disorders.

According to the results of the study, women who slept 5 hours or less in a 24-hour period had a 10% higher risk of developing high blood pressure. Those who slept 6 hours reduced this risk to 7%. On the other hand, participants who slept more than 8 hours in a 24-hour period, as well as those who worked night shifts, did not register any risk of hypertension.

The study also found that women who reported sleep problems had a 14% higher risk of developing high blood pressure. For those who reported frequent sleep problems, the risk increased to 28 percent, according to the study.

What does sleep have to do with hypertension?

The researchers acknowledge that the study cannot establish a causal relationship. Do sleep disorders cause high blood pressure or does high blood pressure ruin our sleep? Dr. Shahag Hagayeg, the lead author of the study, a researcher from Harvard, believes that the mechanism is as follows: “Sleep disturbances lead to sodium retention, cause hardening of the arteries and increase the heart rate, which can lead to hypertension. Night awakenings and poor sleep quality in general can affect the constriction/relaxation of blood vessels and the function of cells that regulate vascular tone.”

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is a strong relationship between the amount of salt consumed and high blood pressure. And for most people, cutting back on salt leads to lower blood pressure.

The hypothesis presented in the study suggests the opposite scenario: the presence of high blood pressure values ​​will cause sleep disturbances, not the other way around. But according to Dr. Hagaeg, difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep usually occurs at night when blood pressure is low, because it drops at night and rises after waking up. “High blood pressure can be the result of poor or insufficient sleep, or both high blood pressure and poor sleep can be the result of other underlying medical conditions,” the doctor told Medical News Today.

Lack of sleep or its quality affects mental health

The direct consequences of insufficient sleep, i.e. reduction of normal sleep even by one or two hours, are mainly related to the functions of the central nervous system. The most common are excessive daytime sleepiness, reduced reaction time, and an increased risk of traffic accidents. But memory and concentration disorders, irritability and a global decrease in quality of life can also be among the consequences.

In the long term, insufficient or poor quality sleep is associated with potentially serious health problems. In addition to high blood pressure, we are talking about diabetes, heart failure, as well as obesity, depression and reduced immunity.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.28 billion adults worldwide suffer from high blood pressure. In Romania, according to data on May 17, 2023, World Hypertension Day, 45% of the population suffers from this disease.

Blood pressure is the pressure that blood exerts on the inner walls of blood vessels during the contraction of the myocardium (systolic blood pressure) and the relaxation of the heart (diastolic blood pressure). According to the European Society of Hypertension, optimal blood pressure is at or below 120/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). If the blood pressure readings rise, are equal to or exceed 140/90 mm Hg, we speak of hypertension.

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