POOR SLEEP QUALITY ENHANCES RISK OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

According to the a report published in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association, a reduced level of dreamless, deep sleep is a powerful predictor for developing high blood pressure in older men. High quality sleep is as important to health as diet and exercise.Reduced slow wave sleep (SWS) is one of the deeper stages of sleep, is characterized by non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) from which it’s difficult to awaken. It’s represented by relatively slow, synchronized brain waves called delta activity on an electroencephalogram. Researchers from the Outcomes of Sleep Disorders in Older Men Study (MrOs Sleep Study) found that people with the lowest level of SWS had an 80 percent increased risk of developing high blood pressure.This study shows for the first time that poor quality sleep, reflected by reduced slow wave sleep, puts individuals at significantly increased risk of developing high blood pressure, and that this effect appears to be independent of the influence of breathing pauses during sleep,Men who spent less than 4 percent of their sleep time in SWS were significantly more likely to develop high blood pressure during the 3.4 years of the study. Men with reduced SWS had generally poorer sleep quality as measured by shorter sleep duration and more awakenings at night and had more severe sleep apnea than men with higher levels of SWS. However, of all measures of sleep quality, decreased SWS were the most strongly associated with the development of high blood pressure. This relationship was observed even after considering other aspects of sleep quality.

REFERENCES

1.    www.globalpharmasectornews.com

2.    www.allheadlinenews.com

3.    www.sciencedaily.com

4.    www.medicalxpress.com

5.    www.eurekalert.org

VINOD B

FIRST YEAR M PHARM

AL-SHIFA COLLEGE OF PHARMACY