Moreover, the magnitude of the problem gets graver if the short sleepers experience a blood pressure hike at night, the condition medically known as ‘riser pattern’.
To gauge the extent of damage in short sleepers with hypertension, the researchers at the Jichi Medical University in Japan enrolled over 1,200 Japanese adults. Aged between 33 and 97, all were diagnosed with chronic high blood pressure.
For each participant the researchers noted the total time spent in bed. Also, using portable blood pressure monitors the blood pressure readings over a 24-hour period were noted for each participant. Participants were then followed for a 50 months period.
During the follow-up period, 99 cases of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from cardiacdefine arrestdefine were reported.
Analysis revealed that short sleepers, those who slept for less than 7.5 hours per night, had a 68 percent higher risk of encountering one of the listed cardiovascular complications, as compared to those who got more shut-eye.
Moreover, short sleepers who were more prone to ‘riser pattern’ were four times more likely to suffer from cardiovascular complications, than those without the riser pattern.
While in healthy adults the blood pressure usually dips at night, signifying a resting phase of the cardiovascular system, and the riser pattern actually makes the system function more actively, thus elevating the chances of adverse complications.
"The combination might have an interactive effect to increase cardiovascular risk," lead researcher of the study Dr. Kazuo Eguchi of Jichi Medical University in Japan wrote. The results of the study feature in the week’s edition of the journal ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’.
Interestingly, while simply putting in more than recommended hours of night sleep does not lower the risk of associated complications, the lack of sleep throws the circadian rhythms of several body processes out of order, the researchers highlighted.
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