Saturday, June 8, 2019

Bad sleep quality affects your blood pressure

08.06.2019  TOI

We’ve all heard the adage, ‘early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.’ And while we know the benefits of a good night’s sleep, people hardly know how sleep deprivation harms the human body. According to a new study, a bad night’s sleep may result in an increase in the blood pressure that night and the following day.

The study offered one possible explanation for why sleep problems have been shown to increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and even death from cardiovascular disease. Researchers carried out a study conducted on 300 men and women, ages 21 to 70, with no history of heart problems. Participants wore portable blood pressure cuffs for two consecutive days. The cuffs randomly took participants’ blood pressure during 45-minute intervals throughout each day and also overnight.

At night, participants wore actigraphy monitors — wristwatch-like devices that measure movement — to help determine their sleep efficiency or the amount of time in bed spent sleeping soundly. Overall, those who had lower sleep efficiency showed an increase in blood pressure during that restless night. They also had higher systolic blood pressure — the top number in a patient’s blood pressure reading — the next day.

The latest findings may be an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding the pathway through which sleep impacts overall cardiovascular health.

“Blood pressure is one of the best predictors of cardiovascular health. There is a lot of literature out there that shows sleep has some kind of impact on mortality and on cardiovascular disease. We wanted to see if we could try to get a piece of that story — how sleep might be impacting disease through blood pressure,” said lead study author Caroline Doyle.

The study reinforced just how important a good night’s sleep can be. It’s not just the amount of time you spend in bed, but the quality of sleep you’re getting. Improving sleep quality can start with making simple changes and being proactive.

“Keep the phone in a different room. If your bedroom window faces the east, pull the shades. For anything that’s going to cause you to waken, think ahead about what you can do to mitigate those effects,” said study coauthor John Ruiz.

For those with chronic sleep troubles, Doyle advocated cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, or CBTI, which focuses on making behavioural changes to improve sleep health. — ANI

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