Study Links Insomnia with Greater Risk of High Blood Pressure

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint in the U.S., but a new study indicates that a lack of sleep could be associated with greater risk of high blood pressure.

According to the study, published in the journal Hypertension, researchers analyzing data from over 200 individuals with chronic insomnia and 96 normal sleepers found that the longer it took to fall asleep, the greater the risk of hypertension. Specifically, researchers measured the amount of time it took each group to fall asleep during four “nap episodes.” Blood pressure readings were taken both before the naps and the morning after.

Participants who took more than 14 minutes to fall asleep had a 300-percent higher rate of high blood pressure, researchers found. They thus associated physiological hyperarousal with risk of hypertension.

Still, this study was limited in that it only monitored subjects for one night, and the blood pressure test was not completed directly after the nap. More research is necessary to determine whether there is a causal effect between difficulty sleeping and high blood pressure.

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