Blood pressure and sleep apnea

Is your high blood pressure difficult to control with medication, and do your readings stay high despite treatment? Do you also sleep poorly and often feel tired and worn out during the day?

It may be that so-called sleep apnea is causing the problem. In this condition, people often have breathing pauses during the night without noticing them. In most cases, a spouse or partner who shares the bed can give more information than the person affected. They often know better whether their partner snores or even stops breathing at timesespecially after someone who snores loudly. If this sounds like you, please discuss it with your doctor.

Sleep apnea can trigger or worsen high blood pressure because the breathing pauses lower the oxygen level in the blood. The body reacts to this life-threatening-feeling state with a lifesaving wake-up response: a brief awakening response called an "arousal." Heart rate and blood pressure rise and the muscles tense. The breathing pause is usually ended by a few deep or long breaths. The person does not usually fully wake up or remember this, but they move into a lighter, less restorative sleep stage. They don't notice the breathing pauses at night but do feel the effects during the day as tiredness, morning headaches, forgetfulness, and mood problems.

The reduced oxygen level raises blood pressure on average by about 8 to 15 mmHg systolic and 5 to 10 mmHg diastolic, because stress hormones increase and the vessel-constricting substance endothelin rises. The lack of restorative sleep at night pushes blood pressure up even more.

If sleep apnea syndrome is present, the normal nighttime drop in blood pressure often doesn't occur because of these factors. Depending on the severity, blood pressure can even go up at night.

Treating sleep apnea usually also helps to lower blood pressure, or it makes blood pressure respond much better to medication.

Sleep apnea doesn't only affect adults. Because of overweight and lack of exercise, the condition is increasingly seen in children and adolescents, and it also raises their risk of developing high blood pressure. Affected children often stand out because of behavior problems or declining school performance. If a child is diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, their blood pressure should also be checked.

Sources

This article comes from BloodPressureDB – the leading app since 2011 that helps hundreds of thousands monitor their blood pressure every day. Our content is based on carefully researched, evidence-based data and is continuously updated (as of 04/2024).

Author Sabine Croci is a qualified medical assistant with many years of experience in internal medicine and cardiology practices as well as in outpatient care, and has led BloodPressureDB's specialist editorial team since 2015. Thanks to her extensive additional qualifications as a paramedic, first responder and in various therapy and emergency areas, she provides solid, practical and reliably reviewed information.

Blood pressure and sleep apnea

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