Many individuals may have experienced difficulty in sleeping at night. For those who always experience this, it's called insomnia. Lack of sleep may lead to a lot of health issues. A recent study by West China Hospital researchers found a link between insomnia and high blood pressure as well as a risk for cardiovascular diseases.
Insomnia or lack of sleep is common among adults. In fact, according to the National Sleep Foundation, around 30% of the population complains of sleep disruption while 10% experience symptoms of daytime functioning alteration due to insomnia.
The researchers conducted a lab-based study of people with insomnia to see if there is a link between lack of sleep and daytime function as well as raised blood pressure among the subjects.
In the study, they monitored 219 people who are insomniacs and 96 people with normal sleep patterns. They conducted the study in a sleep laboratory. They found out that people who took more than 14 minutes to sleep were at a 300% increased risk of becoming hypertensive while those who took more than 17 minutes have 400% increased risk.
The study was published in the American Heart Association Journal, Hypertension.
This study claims that it is the first to investigate the association between hypertension and insomnia which is categorized as 'insomnia with physiological hyperarousal'. The authors explained that this type of insomnia can result to higher blood pressure.
One of the authors, Alexandros Vgontzas, professor of sleep research and treatment in the department of psychiatry at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine said, "Although insomniacs complain of fatigue and tiredness during the day, their problem is that they cannot relax and that they are hyper. Measures that apply in sleep-deprived normal sleepers - napping, caffeine use, or other stimulants to combat fatigue - do not apply in insomniacs. In fact, excessive caffeine worsens the hyperarousal."
Hyperarousal as defined by medical dictionary is a state of increased psychological and physiological tension marked by such effects as reduced pain tolerance, anxiety, exaggerated startle responses, insomnia, fatigue, and accentuation of personality traits.
Scientists have long pointed out that the cause of insomnia may be due to a disorder of hyperarousal for 24 hours a day. Often, hyperarousal of the nervous system is overlooked because some do not understand what it is exactly. Hyperarousal is also known as the 'fight or flight' mechanism. When the body signals that a danger is approaching, the fight or flight system react and will cause many biological changes in the body including increased heart rate and mental alertness.
