Skimping on sleep over a prolonged period appears
to be an important risk factor for developing high
blood pressure, according to a report in the medical
journal Hypertension.
"People who sleep for only
short durations raise their average 24-hour blood
pressure and heart rate," Dr. James E. Gangwisch,
from Columbia University in New York, said in a
statement. "This may set up the cardiovascular system
to operate at an elevated pressure."
Previous reports have linked sleep disorders with
cardiovascular disease, but it was unclear if sleep
deprivation in people who did not have a sleep disorder
affected the likelihood of developing hypertension.
The new findings are based on an analysis of data
for 4810 subjects, between 32 and 86 years old,
who participated in the first National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey. Hypertension was diagnosed
in 647 subjects during the follow-up period from
1982 to 1992.
Among the subjects between 32 and 59 years of age,
sleeping less than 6 hours per night more than doubled
the risk of developing hypertension, the report
indicates. Moreover, this association remained significant
even after taking obesity and diabetes into account.
Further studies are needed to better understand
the mechanisms linking sleep deprivation with high
blood pressure, the researchers note. "If short
sleep duration functions to increase blood pressure,
then interventions that increase the amount and
quality of sleep could potentially serve as treatments
and as primary preventative measures for hypertension."
SOURCE: Hypertension, May 2006.
