Effect of sleep duration on blood pressure in women over 55 years of age - Poznan Cohort study.

Introduction: Hypertension is considered to be the most common pathology of the circulatory system and the most common cause of death or cardiovascular diseases' development. There are many commonly known risk factors of this condition, such as overweight, obesity, a high-fat diet, family history of ischemic heart disease, lipid disorders, and atherosclerosis. In order to reduce the effect of high blood pressure, patients should modify their lifestyle, including sleeping patterns. We wanted to investigate if, in a group of women over 55 years of age compared to the general population from Poznan cohort, sleep duration is related to hypertension.

Materials And Methods: All subjects were divided into three research groups depending on the time of sleep. The first group included people who have been sleeping less than 6 hours a day. The second group included people who have been sleeping from 6 to 9 hours a day. The third group was characterized by people with sleep time over 9 hours a day. Due to their age, participants were divided into two groups, below and over 55 years of age.

Results: There is a weak positive correlation between long sleep duration (>9h) and a higher prevalence of unregulated blood pressure (r = 0.3, p = 0.017) in the group of women over 55 years of age.

Conclusion: Unregulated increased blood pressure may occur more frequently in postmenopausal women whose sleep duration exceeds 9 hours a day.