Lack of sleep linked to high blood pressure in middle age

Middle aged adults who don't get enough sleep are more likely to develop high blood pressure, new research has found.

Scientists from the University of Chicago studied the sleeping patterns of 578 adults with an average age of 40 on separate occasions over a five year period. Blood pressure measurements were also taken.

Most study participants slept for an average of six hours a night. Only 1 per cent slept for an average of eight hours or more.

After adjusting for age, gender and medication, the scientists found that adults who slept less were more likely to have higher blood pressure measurements.

And after five years, missing an hour of sleep was found to raise your risk of high blood pressure by 37 per cent.

The results also showed that men were more likely to go on to develop high blood pressure than women.

The scientists concluded:

"Identifying a novel lifestyle risk factor for high blood pressure could lead to new interventions to prevent or reduce high blood pressure."

This article was published on Fri 12 June 2009