Acute and Chronic Effects of Sleep Duration on Blood Pressure

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and sleep duration as measured by 7-day sleep diary and nocturnal polysomnography in normal-weight adolescents without significant obstructive sleep apnea. METHODS: Subjects aged 10 to 17.9 years with an obstructive apnea hypopnea index 7 ) was obtained from a 7-day sleep diary, reflecting the sleep pattern in the week before admission. Total sleep time (TST) and sleep efficiency (SpE) were obtained from polysomnography. RESULTS: A total of 143 adolescents participated. SpD 7 was inversely associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) in prepolysomnography, in-bed, and postpolysomnography periods (all β = −2 mm Hg) and with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in prepolysomnography and in-bed periods (all β = −1 mm Hg). TST was inversely associated with SBP in the postpolysomnography period ( β = −1.5 mm Hg). SpE was inversely associated with SBP in in-bed period ( β = −0.1 mm Hg) and with DBP in in-bed ( β = −0.1 mm Hg) and postpolysomnography ( β = −0.2 mm Hg) periods. Neither TST nor SpE was associated with SBP and DBP in prepolysomnography period. CONCLUSIONS: Short sleep duration as reflected by 7-day sleep diary was associated with higher blood pressure in normal-weight adolescents. Occasional adequate sleep may partially ameliorate the risk of high blood pressure but may not completely reverse the effect of long-term sleep insufficiency.