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Poor Sleep Drives High Blood Pressure In Teens
- March 7, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Teens who sleep fewer than 7.7 hours are more likely to have high blood pressure, a new study suggests.
Likewise, those suffering from both insomnia and a lack of sleep are five times more likely to have high blood pressure exceeding 140 systolic, according to research presented Thursday at an American Heart Association (AHA) meeting in New Orleans. (Systolic pressure is the force of your blood against artery walls when your heart beats.)
High blood pressure in teen years could set these kids up for a lifetime of heart health problems, researchers warn.
“While we need to explore this association in larger studies on teens, it is safe to say that sleep health matters for heart health, and we should not wait until adulthood to address it,” said senior researcher Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, director of behavioral sleep medicine at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Penn.
“Not all teens who complain of insomnia symptoms are at risk for cardiovascular issues,” he continued in an AHA news release. “However, monitoring their sleep duration objectively can help us identify those who have a more severe form of insomnia and are at-risk for heart problems.”
For the study, researchers recruited 421 students at three school districts in and around Harrisburg, Penn.
The kids told researchers whether or not they suffer from insomnia, and then stayed overnight in a lab to measure their sleep duration. This information was gathered between 2010 and 2013.
The teens' blood pressure was taken a few times two to three hours before lights out in the sleep lab.
“We know that disturbed and insufficient sleep is associated with high blood pressure in adults, particularly in adults who report insomnia and sleep objectively less than six hours, but we do not yet know if these associations exist in adolescents,” Fernandez-Mendoza said.
Teens were considered to have elevated blood pressure if their numbers exceeded 120/80, and to have full-fledged high blood pressure with a reading of 140/90 or higher.
Although the combination of insomnia and poor sleep increased risk of high blood pressure five-fold, teens who reported insomnia but got more than 7.7 hours sleep in the lab didn’t appear to be at risk for either elevated or high blood pressure.
“Our findings are important because they call attention to the need to listen to teens who complain of disturbed sleep, to monitor and assess their sleep objectively and help them improve it in order to prevent heart problems early,” first author Axel Robinson, a 17-year-old senior at Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, N.Y., said in a news release.
Robinson's involvement is an outgrowth of a four-year science research program at his school and two internships with Fernandez-Mendoza.
The research is ongoing and collecting data from the same participants, who are now 20 to 33 years old.
“This study adds to the limited knowledge base about the relation between poor sleep and risk of hypertension during a crucial life stage of development,” AHA spokeswoman Brooke Aggarwal said in a news release.
“Prevention of heart disease is key, and it begins with the adoption of a healthy lifestyle in childhood and adolescence, including optimal sleep,” said Aggarwal, an assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. “Setting healthy sleep patterns during the teenage years could carry over into adulthood.”
Similarly, she added, "sleep problems that occur during the teen years tend to persist over time and could predispose individuals to increased cardiovascular risk later in life.”
Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
More information
The National Sleep Foundation has more on teenagers and sleep.
SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, March 6, 2025
