A prospective study of the association between total sleep duration and incident hypertension

The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate total sleep duration as a potential risk factor for the development of hypertension after a mean of 2.6 years of follow-up. The study participants comprised 1715 Korean adults aged 40 to 70 years. The participants were without hypertension at baseline (2005-2008) and during follow-up (2008-2011) to determine the incident cases of hypertension. Based on a self-reported questionnaire, the individuals were stratified according to total sleep duration (<6 hours, 6-7.9 hours, 8-9.9 hours, ≥10 hours). Hypertension was defined according to the Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC 8) guidelines. After an average of 2.6 years of follow-up, 164 (9.56%) participants developed hypertension. In multivariate adjusted models, the odds ratio for new-onset hypertension was 1.71 (95% confidence interval, 1.01-2.89) in participants with a short sleep duration (<6 hours) compared with those who reported 6 to 7.9 hours of sleep. Long sleep duration (more than 8 hours) did not have any significant difference on incident hypertension. Among middle-aged and elderly Korean adults, short sleepers were independently associated with a higher risk of developing hypertension.