Relationship Between Sleep and Hypertension: A Narrative Review

Abstract

The risk of cardiovascular disease increases at an alarming rate with the increase in an individual’s blood pressure. Rise in systemic arterial blood pressure can be caused by factors such as unhealthy diet (excessive intake of salts, trans-fats and saturated fats), alcohol intake, inadequate sleep, smoking and decreased levels of physical activity. This narrative review aims at providing an overview of the existing studies on the relationship between duration of sleep as well as its quality and hypertension. The studies reported in this review were collected from the databases that include PubMed, Sciencedirect, Hindawi, ResearchGate and AHA journals in the period of 2006-2022. The keywords used for searching in the databases included sleep, insomnia, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. The two sociodemographic variables considered was age and gender. Literature review showed that individuals reporting shorter durations of sleep, disrupted sleep patterns and insomnia were shown to be suffering from hypertension as compared to individuals receiving adequate and quality sleep at night. Data from this review article can prove beneficial to the common population in the understanding of sleep being a modifiable risk factor of hypertension and encourage healthcare workers and patients to make the necessary changes in their sleeping patterns to prevent hypertension and associated cardiovascular events.