Here's another reason for you to catch your Zs: healthier blood pressure.
In 90–95% of people with high blood pressure, doctors are unable to pinpoint the exact cause. In these cases, the condition is called essential or primary hypertension. In the remaining 5–10% of people, doctors are able to identify a cause, and this type of high blood pressure is called secondary hypertension.
Now researchers may have found a connection between sleep habits and high blood pressure. In a study reported in the journal Hypertension (Volume 47, page 833) researchers studied more than 4,800 Americans and found that young and middle-aged adults who clocked five or fewer hours of sleep each night were 60% more likely than their well-rested peers to develop hypertension over the next decade. Lack of sleep did not appear to raise blood pressure in adults older than age 59, however.
The link between sleep habits and blood pressure remained even after the researchers controlled for weight, depression, smoking, and physical activity levels. This means there may be something about chronic sleep deprivation that raises a person’s blood pressure.
One possibility is that people who get little sleep have more exposure to the elevations in heart rate, blood pressure, and nervous system activity that come with being awake. As a result, the body may adapt to these chronic elevations by operating at a new, higher level. Chronic sleep deprivation might also throw a wrench in the central "clock” in your brain, which governs the rhythm of bodily processes, including blood pressure control. People vary in the amount of sleep they need, but experts recommend that adults get at least six hours of sleep a night.
