Objective short sleep duration and 24-hour blood pressure

Short sleep duration is a contributor to cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and mortality. Short sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of high clinic blood pressure (BP). BP measured outside the clinic using 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a better predictor of an individual's CVD risk. We examined the association between objectively-assessed sleep duration and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (ABP).

A total of 893 working adults underwent sleep and ABPM. Participants were fitted with an ABPM device, and measures were taken at 28-30 min intervals. Objective sleep duration, and times of wakefulness and sleep during the 24-h ABPM period were derived from wrist-worn actigraphy. Linear regression, adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, body mass index, smoking status, and diabetes were conducted on the relationship between sleep duration and the ABP measures.

Mean age of participants (final n = 729, 59.5% female, 11.9% Hispanic) was 45.2 ± 10.4 y. Mean actigraphy-derived sleep duration was 6.8 ± 1.2 h. Sleep duration <6 h was associated with a 1.73 mmHg higher 24-h systolic BP (p = 0.031) and 2.17 mmHg higher 24-h diastolic BP (p < 0.001). Shorter sleep duration was not associated with mean awake or asleep systolic BP (p = 0.89 and p = 0.92) or mean awake or asleep diastolic BP (p = 0.30 and p = 0.74).

To our knowledge, this is the largest study conducted which assessed sleep duration objectively while measuring 24-h ABP. Shorter sleep duration is associated with higher 24-h BP and potentially cardiovascular risk.