Lack of Sleep a Nightmare for Blood Pressure
University of Chicago Study Links Hypertension to Lack of Sleep
Proper amount of sleep may bring blood pressure levels down
With the recent release of my book The Blood Pressure Miracle in stores across the country and the amount of work I’ve done recently to promote it, my attention is immediately grabbed whenever I see a headline that links anything to high blood pressure. And so it was when I read this recent report that links sleep to high blood pressure.
Lacking a good night’s sleep can sometimes be attributed to the person; in other words, the person is not getting enough sleep simply because he or she isn’t biding their time well and chooses to stay out late or stay up late. But for others, like the 70 million Americans who are affected by a chronic sleep disorder, it’s an unfortunate part of their reality that they must cope with night in, night out.
While tossing and turning is certainly inconvenient and frustrating, leaving people cranky and testy the next morning, it frustrates blood pressure levels as well, according to a new study that investigated the links between high blood pressure and sleep.
The study involved approximately 600 middle-aged adults of varying ethnicity and gender and was spread out over a five-year period. The University of Chicago researchers tracked these men and women over the years, noting the average amount of sleep they got each night and keeping track of their blood pressure levels throughout the process.
The results? Pretty galling.
I say “galling” because we all know that we ought to be getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night, the eighth hour being the most important hour for proper thinking and memory function. We know this, yet only one percent – one percent! – got the recommended eight hours of sleep. The majority of those involved in the study got around six hours of sleep a night (which is estimated to be the average amount the average American gets).
And as the researchers showed in their study, there was something of an inverse relationship between the hours slept and whether that person developed high blood pressure. For instance, when researchers compared people who got six hours of sleep with those who got an average of five hours of sleep, the five-hour folk increased their risk of hypertension development by 37 percent! One hour difference had that big of an impact!
The researchers say that more studies need to be done before it can be said with any definitiveness that more sleep can bring blood pressure levels down, as there are lots of variables that go into high blood pressure development (e.g. diet, exercise, ethnicity, family history, etc.).
In times like these, it can be just plain hard to sleep, even if you don’t have a sleep disorder. In a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, one-third of Americans lose sleep every night because of the country’s current economic situation.
Thinking about anything distressing is a nightmare for sleep. Do your best to put all distressing thoughts out of your mind when your head hits the pillow by thinking “happy thoughts,” like lying out on the beach, or a particularly pleasant past experience. Here are three other tips to follow, as suggested by National Sleep Foundation:
- Exercise, but don’t exercise too close to bedtime. Exercise tires the body physically (conducive to sleep) but it revs up the brain (not conducive to sleep).
- Caffeine’s fine to drink in moderation, but not around bedtime. Not even a little. Put the lid on caffeine at dinnertime; keep it limited to a morning cup or in your afternoon brew.
- Just as a handyman can’t function without his tool belt, Mr. Sandman can’t be summoned without a quality bed. Your sleeplessness may be a function of improper “tools.” Try out a new mattress.
Sources:
msnbc.msn.com
sleepfoundation.org
Related Posts
- Blood Pressures Rising Among Youth: Researchers Believe Lack of Sleep May Be to Blame
- Walk to Lower Blood Pressure
- Vitamin C for Healthy Blood Pressure
- Why Sleep Needs the Goldilocks Treatment
- Lower Blood Pressure Through Potassium Intake
 
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Posted: June 15th, 2009 under Sleep.
Tags: hypertension, hypertension risk factors, lack of sleep
