A good night’s sleep protects against high blood pressure in teenagers

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 (HealthDay News) — High blood pressure is a rare health problem among teenagers, but the number of cases in the United States is on the rise.

Now, a study published recently in Journal of the American Heart Association, shows that healthy sleep can help prevent hypertension in young people.

This is likely because “disrupted sleep can lead to changes in the body’s response to stress, including increased levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, which in turn can increase blood pressure,” explained the study’s first author. Augusto Cesar Ferreira de Moraes. He is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

As the researchers note, high blood pressure maybe affect a teen: Data shows that in 2018-2020, about 1.7% of US teens (on average, about 14 years old) were diagnosed with hypertension, and by 2020-2022, that number had risen to 2.9%.

The new study looked at the same data set, which included more than 3,300 children wearing Fitbits that tracked their daytime activity and total sleep time at night, as well as their REM (deep) sleep.

The study found that teens who slept the age-recommended 9 to 11 hours a night were 37 percent less likely to have “incidents” with high blood pressure compared to those who didn’t.

Some factors, such as the noise level in the neighborhood where the teenager lived, did not affect the results, De Moraes and his colleagues noted.

There are ways to improve sleep during adolescence, said study co-author and graduate student Martin Ma.

“A consistent sleep schedule, minimizing screen time before bed, and creating a calm, quiet sleep environment can all contribute to better sleep quality,” he said in a university news release. And, “although environmental noise did not directly affect hypertension in this study, maintaining a quiet and peaceful sleep environment is still important for overall well-being.”

More information

Learn more about high blood pressure in teens at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCE: University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, November 12, 2024