Getting less than seven hours’ sleep increases your risk of developing high blood pressure, research suggests. Research covering one million people in six countries showed less than seven hours a night was linked to a 7 poer cent higher blood pressure risk. Less than five hours' skip appeared to increase your risk by 11 per cent. The findings, presented at the
American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session in the US, appeared to show
Women are at greater risk than men. Study principal investigator Doctor Kaveh Hosseini, assistant professor of cardiology at the Tehran Heart Center in
Iran, said: "The less you sleep - that is less than seven hours a day - the more likely you will develop high blood pressure in the future. Mum's 'silent killer' diagnosis after suffering bloating and loss of appetite "What we see is that lack of good sleep patterns may increase the risk of high blood pressure, which we know can set the stage for heart disease and stroke. Getting seven to eight hours of sleep, as is recommended by sleep experts, may be the best for your heart too." By comparison, diabetes and smoking are known to heighten a person's risk of hypertension by at least 20 per cent. For the study, the researchers looked at data from 1,044,035 people from six countries who did not have high blood pressure at the start of the research. On average, they were followed up over a period of five years. When adjusting for factors such as heart disease risk, sex, education, smoking status and weight, the team found short sleep duration to be associated with a higher risk of high blood pressure. The NHS recommends adults get between seven and eight hours of sleep a night. The researchers said people should talk to their GP or healthcare professionals about their sleep patterns as conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea have been linked with higher rates of high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease. Dr Hosseini added: "Getting too little sleep appears to be riskier in females. The difference is statistically significant, though we are not sure it's clinically significant and should be further studied.”