TOCHIGI, Japan — People who have high blood pressure while asleep are more likely to suffer cardiovascular disease, especially heart failure, in the future, a new study reveals. In fact, researchers at Jichi Medical University in Japan warn that even when a patient’s daytime blood pressure is within normal ranges, they are still more likely to have a heart attack or a stroke.

Medical practitioners typically use in-office and daytime blood pressure measurements to determine a patient’s hypertension medication needs and dosages. But many patients may have undetected high blood pressure while sleeping, also known as nocturnal hypertension, scientists say.

“Nighttime blood pressure is increasingly being recognized as a predictor of cardiovascular risk,” says lead author Professor Kazuomi Kario, a professor of cardiovascular medicine, in a statement to the American Heart Association. “This study provides much more in-depth information about the cardiovascular risk associated with high nighttime blood pressure and different nighttime blood pressure phenotypes than have been reported previously.”

Patients’ blood pressure monitored during the day and while sleeping

For the study, data was collected from 6,359 adults from across Japan between 2009 and 2017. Nearly half of the study participants were male, and more than half were at least 65 years old. The patients all had at least one cardiovascular risk factor, and three-quarters of them were taking blood pressure medications. None had symptomatic cardiovascular disease when the study began.

Researchers measured daytime and nighttime blood pressure levels using an at-home, wearable monitor. Measurements were taken for at least 24 hours at a time, and device data were periodically downloaded at a health care clinic. Participants were instructed to self-report their daily activities along with sleep and wake times in a diary. A

Almost every participant recorded 20 daytime and seven night-time automated blood pressure measurements. Follow-ups occurred annually via phone or clinic visit, with total follow up ranging from two to seven years.

Researchers analyzed the rates of cardiovascular disease events, including heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and death, among the participants. The occurrence and timing of heart events in relation to blood pressure variations was analyzed to determine whether there were any associations.

In all, participants experienced a total of 306 cardiovascular events, including 119 strokes, 99 diagnoses of coronary artery disease, and 88 diagnoses of heart failure.

‘Significant, independent risk factor for cardiovascular events’

Authors say that an abnormal reading, or a systolic blood pressure measuring 20 mm Hg above a person’s daytime systolic reading, is significantly linked to the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and heart failure. Similarly, participants with an abnormal circadian pattern, which occurs when sleep blood pressure exceeds daytime readings, were at particular risk of developing heart failure and had a greater risk of experiencing any heart disease event.

Excessive reduction of blood pressure during sleep may also be detrimental. Patients with well-controlled hypertension showed a significantly increased risk of stroke when nighttime systolic pressure took extreme dips.

“Results indicate that nighttime systolic blood pressure was a significant, independent risk factor for cardiovascular events,” says Kario. “The study highlights the importance of including nighttime blood pressure monitoring in patient management strategies and will hopefully encourage physicians to ensure that antihypertensive therapy is effectively lowering blood pressure throughout the 24-hour dosing period.”

But the authors note that their study is not without limitations.

Ambulatory data were obtained once at the start of the study. However, no information was available regarding the contributions of subsequent changes in ambulatory blood pressure levels up until the time of diagnosis of a cardiac event. The study also focused on systolic, rather than diastolic, measurements due to the older age of the participants.

The authors say study evaluations did not include echocardiograms, thus preventing some degree of differentiation for types of heart failure.

The new research is published in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation.

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Christine McGuinness spoke candidly about how she has struggled with sleep since her teenage years, admitting that sometimes she gets as little as two hours rest a night

Christine McGuinness has opened up about her battle with insomnia as she revealed what helps her drift off.

The Real Housewives of Cheshire star, 32, spoke candidly about how she has struggled with sleep since her teenage years, admitting that sometimes she gets as little as two hours rest a night.

She took to her Instragram account on Wednesday night to share a picture of herself completely naked as she sat on her bed with her back to the camera.

In the post she explained that she has to be completely naked when she goes to bed to help her sleep, and also uses CBD oil to make her sleepy.

Christine wrote: ” Let’s talk insomnia… I’ve struggled with sleep since my teenage years, it’s totally normal for me to have between 2-5 hrs sleep.

“I’m not trying to ‘fix’ this as it’s just a part of my life now and there are times that I love being awake through the night… it’s the only time I get to myself, but I am looking for tips on how to switch off for those nights that I really need sleep!

“For me, there are so many reasons that I don’t sleep, reasons that I can’t do anything about so that’s why I’m not trying to fix it I just want to help reduce it if that makes sense!. I would like to relax if/when I can.”

Christine, who is married to Paddy McGuinness, said she has tried several things to help cure her insomnia, including CBD gummy sweets.

She doesn’t like lavender and doesn’t want to use sleeping tablets in case her children need her in the night and she doesn’t wake up.

The TV star continued: “I just can’t wear pjs, or anything at all to sleep but I need a quilt whatever the weather.

“I don’t watch TV, I’m a televerian! (I totally just made that word up but basically I very rarely watch TV).

“I struggle to read books because I can’t stay focused any more than one sentence and I try to stay off my phone in the evening.

“I’m also Ttotal, have been for 13 years so a cheeky vodka is a no no! But my mind just loves to party all night!”

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We all have those days where we just spend the entire daydreaming about your bed. Bedtime can’t come sooner, and when the time finally comes, you feel like you’re going to fall asleep the minute your head touches your pillow. But as soon as you go to close your eyes, you can’t fall asleep.

Insomnia happens to all of us, even on those days when all we want to do is go to sleep. There are tons of ways to treat insomnia, from melatonin pills to bedtime music. But you also can treat insomnia with food, so be sure to eat these foods the next time you want to guarantee you get a good night’s sleep:

Dark Chocolate

A late-night snack that will satisfy your sweet tooth and help you fall asleep? Say no more. Dark chocolate is full of magnesium, which is excellent for helping you catch those z’s.

Brown Rice

Swap out your pasta for brown rice on those days you have a late dinner and still want to get to bed early. Brown rice shares similar properties to melatonin, rich in tryptophan, which is an amino acid that can help you get sleepy.

Almonds

Almonds are surprisingly full of melatonin and a great source of magnesium. Magnesium can help fight inflammation and reduce stress levels of cortisol, which can lead to restless nights.

Chamomile Tea

In addition to being anti-inflammatory, drinking a cup of warm chamomile tea is a great way to ensure you’ll get a good night’s rest. Chamomile has also been found to reduce anxiety and depression and improve your skin overall.

Spinach

Spinach can be enjoyed in a myriad of ways, from blended into a green smoothie to wilted in a pasta. Regardless of the way you choose to enjoy spinach, it’s a great food source to help you fall asleep. Spinach is high in magnesium and tryptophan, both of which can help you get to sleep no problem.

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The light bulb changed how we sleep. No longer bound to sunlight or the dim flickering of candles, people discovered there was a lot more to do in the bright, incandescent glow.

Yet dawn still comes early. And that’s the rub.

More than 70 million Americans sleep for less than six hours on weekdays. And that’s worrisome because inadequate sleep—less than seven hours daily—is associated with a host of serious diseases and conditions, including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and stroke. Medications are typically the first line of treatment for these health problems.

But in a recent pilot study, Kelly G. Baron, Ph.D., M.P.H., D.B.S.M., a University of Utah Health clinical psychologist and sleep specialist in the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, found that simple behavior interventions improved sleep, lessened daytime sleepiness, and significantly lowered blood pressure in a group of “short” sleepers who were on the cusp of hypertension.

“If we can get people to extend their sleep time by just 30 minutes, that can have real consequences for their health and well-being,” Baron says. “The improvements we saw in blood pressure were clinically exciting. It had as big an effect as taking medication.”

These interventions, Baron says, eventually could help improve the health of many people at risk for diseases linked to shorter-than-average sleep duration.

The study, conducted at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago prior to Baron joining U of U Health, appears in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

“If we can get people to extend their sleep time by just 30 minutes, that can have real consequences for their health and well-being.”

Baron and her colleagues used wearable sleep trackers (such as Fitbit) and smartphone apps to chart the sleeping patterns and routines of 11 men and women, ages 30-65, who were at risk for high blood pressure and reported sleeping less than seven hours a day. They also provided participants with weekly telephone coaching as well as educational materials about the importance of sleep, sleep-inducing bedtime routines, and other related topics.

Over a six-week period, the researchers regularly measured ambulatory blood pressure, total sleep time, time in bed, sleep efficiency (the percent of time actually asleep in bed), and other factors. Overall, participants who used the interventions reported lower blood pressure readings, longer total sleep time, fewer sleep disruptions, more time spent in bed, and better daytime alertness than those who were asked to merely maintain their pre-study sleep routines.

“This study shows that it’s possible to get people to extend their sleep,” Baron says. “They really enjoyed doing it with the technology we provided for them. It shows the potential for developing this approach to improve blood pressure by simply modifying a person’s behavior.”

Baron and her colleagues in U of U Health’s Behavioral Sleep Medicine program are currently recruiting volunteers to participate in a larger, longer 12-week study of this intervention.

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