High blood pressure, as we know, it increases the risk of suffering a heart attack and stroke, obviously if the values are not brought back within the limits recommended on a case-by-case basis by the doctor. Hypertension In most cases it is defined as essential, meaning it does not have a clear cause.
What is sometimes not considered, however, is that our habits can somehow facilitate blood pressure increases. So, if we exaggerate with salt and therefore increase our sodium intake, if we don’t control our weight, if we don’t move regularly, obviously we risk more. But there is one aspect that is not often given the right attention. It’s sleep. If we sleep little and perhaps even poorly, hypertension is lurking. Especially in women. The confirmation comes from research presented at the American College of Cardiology conference, according to which sleep less than seven hours is associated with a greater risk of developing hypertension over the years.
An analysis of over a million people
The survey examined the results of 16 different studies, measuring the incidence of hypertension in 1,044,035 people from six countries who had no previous history of high blood pressure. The monitoring of the subjects lasted on average five years, with peaks of up to 18 years.
Sleep little was found to be associated (therefore without a clear cause-effect relationship) at a higher risk of developing hypertension after adjusting for demographic and cardiovascular risk factors, including age, sex, education, body mass index, smoking, and more. Subjects who slept less than five hours appeared at particular risk.
In particular, as reported in a note by the principal researcher Kaveh Hosseini, of the University of Los Angeles, “a trend was noted between longer sleep durations and a greater incidence of hypertension, but it was not statistically significant”. The study found that sleep less than seven hours was associated with a 7% increase in risk to develop hypertension, which reached11% when the reported sleep duration was less than five hours.
By comparison, diabetes and smoking are known to increase the risk of hypertension by at least 20%. According to experts, interruptions in sleep can also become a risk factor, limiting the total number of hours dedicated to rest but not only. In fact, among the elements on which attention is focused there is also interrupted sleep, perhaps due to overeating, alcohol use, night work, anxiety and/or depression and sleep apnea.
Women are especially at risk
What is striking about the investigation? Firstly, the almost absolute lack of weight of age, at least when calculating the relationship between sleep and hypertension. There would be instead a gender difference. Compared to men, women who reported sleeping fewer than seven hours had a 7 percent greater risk of developing high blood pressure.
According to scholars, therefore, sleeping little seems to be more risky for women, at least in terms of the risk of developing hypertension and consequently increasing the dangers of heart attack and stroke. Even if the study has some limitations, in particular related to the subjective perception of sleep duration which can prove misleading, the situation must still be considered carefully. And pay attention to sleeping well. The health of the heart and the surges in blood pressure that over time put it at risk are at stake!
