Sleep Deprivation Elevates Resting and Exercise Blood Pressures and Augments Pressor Response at Exercise Onset

Sleep deprivation and elevated blood pressure (BP) increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. However, the effects of sleep deprivation on BP response, especially at exercise onset, remain unclear. We aimed to elucidate the effects of experimental sleep deprivation (ESD) on resting and exercise BPs, including that at exercise onset, and investigate whether a nighttime nap during ESD changes the ESD-altered BP.

Twelve healthy young men underwent 2-min submaximal isometric elbow flexion (IEF) exercise to measure BP after 7 d of normal sleep (control trial), 24-h ESD (ESD trial), and ESD with a 2-h nighttime nap (ESD + NAP trial), which were randomly performed.

ESD significantly elevated the mean arterial pressure (MAP) at rest (85.8 ± 8.0 to 93.3 ± 5.1 mm Hg, P = 0.003) and at the last minute of IEF (116.9 ± 13.0 to 126.2 ± 11.8 mm Hg, P = 0.003) compared with that observed in the control trial. At IEF onset (the initial 15 s), ESD significantly elevated the MAP (88.7 ± 12.6 to 103.1 ± 8.8 mm Hg, P < 0.001) and augmented the MAP responsiveness from baseline, compared with that observed in the control trial (Δ2.9 ± 11.4 to Δ9.8 ± 6.6 mm Hg, P = 0.017). The MAP responsiveness in the ESD + NAP trial (Δ7.3 ± 5.2 mm Hg) was not significantly different from that in the control trial ( P = 0.165) and the ESD trial ( P = 0.129).

ESD significantly elevated both resting BP and the BP during submaximal isometric exercise and significantly augmented the initial pressor response to the exercise. A 2-h nighttime nap during ESD appears to be insufficient to completely attenuate ESD-induced augmented pressor responses.