Adolescents who meet the recommended guidelines of 9 to 11 hours of sleep per day were shown to have a significantly lower risk of hypertension in a new study from UTHealth Houston. Recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association , the research revealed that adolescents had a 37% lower risk of developing incidents of high blood pressure by meeting healthy sleep patterns, and underscoring the importance of adequate sleep behavior. The research further explored the impact of environmental factors potentially impacting sleep.
"Disrupted sleep can lead to changes in the body's stress response, including elevated levels of stress hormones like cortisol, which in turn can increase blood pressure," said first author Augusto César Ferreira De Moraes, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health.
Utilizing the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, which tracks adolescents' biological and behavioral development, De Moraes and his team analyzed data from 3,320 adolescents across the U.S. to investigate incidents of high blood pressure during nighttime sleep cycles.
Scientists identified a rise in hypertension incidents over two data periods, 2018-2020 and 2020-2022, showing an increase from 1.7% to 2.9%.
The data included blood pressure readings and Fitbit assessments, which measured total sleep time and REM sleep duration at night. The study's design analyzed covariates such as Fitbit-tracked slee.