Could poor sleep or not enough sleep lead to an increase in your blood pressure (BP)? It’s not fully understood how and why, but it’s thought that sleep helps regulate stress hormones and helps your nervous system to remain healthy. Over time, lack of sleep could hurt your body’s ability to regulate stress hormones, leading to high blood pressure (hypertension).1
Dr. Michael Grandner, Director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, says, “Hypertension is a key cardiovascular risk factor. There are now many studies that have been able to show that insufficient sleep and poor sleep quality are related to the development of high blood pressure and other aspects of heart disease.” Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. Those with this disorder have been found to be at higher risk of hypertension.2
