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Chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk of cardiovascular disease
Many people in Germany suffer from sleep problems. Only last month, the DAK published a report, according to which sleep disorders among working people between the ages of 35 and 65 have risen by 66 percent since 2010. The German Hypertension League now points out in a recent communication that sleep disorders also represent a significant risk factor in cardiovascular diseases.
In the long run, sleep disorders promote the development of cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, according to the expert in the run-up to the symposium of the German Hypertension League e.V. / DHL) at the 123rd Annual Congress of the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM) in Mannheim. Sleep deprivation should therefore be considered as a serious health risk.
Lack of sleep is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure. (Image: Sven Vietense / fotolia.com) Effect already after a sleepless night
In Germany, 12 percent of the population reach only five hours or less sleep per night, reports the German High Pressure League. Every third German indicates in surveys, regularly suffer from falling asleep or staying asleep. As a direct result, not only exhaustion and fatigue on the day after it, but also the blood pressure increases, explains Professor. med. Bernd Sanner, medical director at Agaplesion Bethesda Hospital in Wuppertal and board member of DHL. The effect is already evident after a sleepless night, Prof. Sanner continues.
Less than six hours sleep a risk
According to the DHL expert, "People who regularly sleep less than six hours have a 60 percent risk of developing high blood pressure." If you're falling asleep or staying asleep at the same time, the risk of having a high-pressure disease increases four-fold. According to Prof. Sanner, the cause of the relationship is the increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which turns man into a "fight-or-flight" mode. Lack of sleep causes this increased activity. In addition, the release of stress hormones in the adrenal glands is increased in cases of lack of sleep.
Inflammatory activity increases with lack of sleep
Recent studies have also shown that lack of sleep increases the inflammatory activity in the body, said Prof. Sanner. "This then leads to a disruption of the blood sugar metabolism and accelerated vascular calcification," explains the expert. A series of observational studies have shown in recent years that sleep disorders and lack of sleep in this way promote cardiovascular disease in the long term. As a result, sufferers "would be at an increased risk of contracting or dying from a heart attack or chronic heart failure."
Nocturnal drop in blood pressure
The effects of sleep disorders and lack of sleep on blood pressure are determined by cardiologists in a so-called long-term blood pressure measurement. For this purpose, patients carry a device for 24 hours, which carries out regular blood pressure measurements. Normally, there is a drop in blood pressure of about ten to twenty percent in healthy people during the night. However, this effect (also known as dipping) is mitigated or reversed in people who sleep too little or too little. "In extreme cases, there is even a nocturnal increase in blood pressure," says Professor Sanner.
Increased risk of death
The lack of nocturnal drop in blood pressure in sleep disorders can, according to the expert, at worst constitute a deadly risk. "Reduced nocturnal dipping, the so-called non-dipping, was also associated with increased mortality in studies," says Prof. Sanner. With a nocturnal increase in blood pressure, the risk of death was about twice as high. However, sleeping pills can not solve the problem, according to Professor Sanner. Instead, patients need to look with their doctors for the underlying causes, says Sanner.
Sleep hygiene with far-reaching influence
According to the expert, improved sleep hygiene with regular sleep times and the avoidance of extreme stress as well as alcohol consumption in the evening hours can already bring significant improvements. It should also be borne in mind that mental stress can also be responsible for sleep disorders and thus for high blood pressure. In addition, so-called obstructive sleep apnea is another common cause. This is associated with loud snoring and pauses in breathing during sleep. In the frequent breathing pauses it comes here regularly to an increase of the blood pressure, which in the sum then the nocturnal Dipping.
Examine high blood pressure patients in the sleep laboratory
Patients with high blood pressure and abnormal long-term blood pressure should also be examined in a sleep laboratory, according to Prof. Sanner. Lack of sleep and possible underlying sleep disorders should, in his opinion, always be part of the medical history of high blood pressure - especially in patients who do not respond to therapy or non-dipping in 24-hour measurements. (Fp)