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You could have heard sleep described as one thing of a magic tablet for the physique. With the correct amount, timing, and high quality, it will possibly work wonders—strengthen the immune system, enhance blood sugar, even lower the danger of coronary heart assaults and strokes. Sleep variations have been reported for a while in women and men, however it isn’t well-known whether or not the traits of sleep serve completely different capabilities in a single gender over the opposite, particularly because it pertains to the guts. New analysis seeks solutions.
Quite a few research over a long time have documented a vital function for sleep in coronary heart well being. For instance, sleep length is pivotal in sustaining wholesome blood strain ranges. A 2018 research discovered that individuals who slept lower than seven hours had larger blood strain when in comparison with those that slept not less than seven hours.
“Sleep is critical for overall health and well-being,” mentioned Marishka Brown, Ph.D., director of the Nationwide Middle on Sleep Problems Analysis at NHLBI. “Research is beginning to uncover how sleep characteristics, like time spent in each sleep stage or how often one wakes up at night, contribute to blood pressure control, and also how sex and gender may impact these outcomes, but we still have unanswered questions.”
Kristen Knutson, Ph.D. affiliate professor of neurology and preventive drugs at Northwestern College Feinberg College of Drugs, is attempting to assist fill these gaps. “We know sleep matters greatly for heart health,” she mentioned. “So, we’re trying to find out more about this connection, and also how sleep might be linked to the gender differences we see in cardiovascular disease.” Hypertension, for instance, is extra strongly related to coronary heart assault in ladies than it’s in males.
Knutson and her crew just lately printed a research in SLEEP that centered on the completely different phases and traits of sleep, versus sleep length, to see what components, if any, are related to blood strain ranges in women and men.
The research discovered that the ladies who spent extra time in deep sleep—the third and deepest stage of sleep—tended to have decrease blood strain than ladies who spent much less time on this stage. In males, nevertheless, no comparable affiliation between blood strain and deep sleep was seen. On the identical time, males who get up extra typically after falling asleep had larger blood strain than males who awakened much less typically, whereas in ladies, waking up after falling asleep didn’t have a comparable affiliation with blood strain.
The researchers used at-home sleep research for greater than 1,100 adults in Brazil who didn’t have reasonable to extreme sleep apnea—circumstances already recognized to be linked with hypertension, although some members did have gentle sleep apnea. Examine members ranged from ages 18 to 91, and 64% recognized as ladies.
The researchers recorded one night time of sleep utilizing polysomnography, a diagnostic check that measures numerous physique capabilities, reminiscent of mind waves and coronary heart fee throughout sleep, utilizing sensors positioned all through the physique. The next morning, they took blood strain readings and fasting blood samples to measure lipid ranges—particularly, complete ldl cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein ldl cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein ldl cholesterol, and triglycerides. They analyzed the information collectively, and in addition by gender.
They discovered variations in blood strain when evaluating the sleep experiences of simply the lads and simply the ladies, and in addition when evaluating the women and men.
However the findings, whereas intriguing, are solely a place to begin for different avenues of analysis, Knutson mentioned. For instance, the researchers didn’t take a number of timepoints for sleep and blood strain, so couldn’t decide if somebody acquired roughly sleep at any stage, or waking up in the course of the night time, really made blood strain ranges higher or worse. Future research would want to check whether or not altering these sleep phases in women and men results in modifications in blood strain ranges.
Nonetheless, Knutson mentioned the outcomes of the present research may information future work that explores the underlying mechanisms which may be making deep sleep specifically extra worthwhile for ladies. This, in flip, may result in novel therapies that improve this sleep stage in ladies. She additionally defined that experimental research may check whether or not sure modifications in sleep habits can result in enhancements in blood strain and, in the end, coronary heart well being.
“This study suggests that a better understanding of how specific sleep characteristics could lead to more targeted strategies to help both women and men protect their hearts,” mentioned Brown. “Studies such as this continue to reiterate the critical nature of sleep in the clinical management of hypertension.”
Extra data:
Tâmara P Taporoski et al, Gender-specific associations between sleep phases and cardiovascular threat components, SLEEP (2024). DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsae242
Journal data:
Sleep
Supplied by
NIH/Nationwide Coronary heart, Lung and Blood Institute
Quotation:
The hyperlink between sleep and blood strain: New analysis sheds mild on gender variations (2024, November 26)
retrieved 26 November 2024
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2024-11-link-blood-pressure-gender-differences.html
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