Sleeping During the Day Cuts Blood Pressure And Heart Attacks, Study

If you take a midday nap, you are less prone to blood pressure problems, and will be prescribed fewer antihypertensive medications, according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Manolis Kallistratos, a cardiologist at Asklepieion Voula General Hospital in Athens, Greece, according to sciencedaily.

"Although William Blake affirms that it is better to think in the morning, act at noon, eat in the evening and sleep at night, noon sleep seems to have beneficial effects," said Dr Kallistratos. "Two influential UK Prime Ministers were supporters of the midday nap. Winston Churchill said that we must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner while Margaret Thatcher didn't want to be disturbed at around 3:00 pm. According to our study they were right because midday naps seem to lower blood pressure levels and may probably also decrease the number of required antihypertensive medications."

He added: "Μidday sleep is a habit that nowadays is almost a privileged due to a nine to five working culture and intense daily routine. However the real question regarding this habit is: is it only a custom or is it also beneficial?"

His study looked at 386 middle aged patients, including 200 men and 186 women at an average age of 61.4 years. They suffered from arterial hypertension, according to business-standard.

The team looked at the following: "midday sleep time (in minutes), office BP, 24 hour ambulatory BP, pulse wave velocity, lifestyle habits, body mass index (BMI) and a complete echocardiographic evaluation including left atrial size. BP measurements were reported as diastolic and systolic BP."

If various factors that affect BP such as "age, gender, BMI, smoking status, salt, alcohol, exercise and coffee" are taken into account, scientists found that midday sleepers had a lower blood-pressure problem.

Dr Kallistratos said: "Although the mean BP decrease seems low, it has to be mentioned that reductions as small as 2 mmHg in systolic blood pressure can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by up to 10%."

Midday sleepers also had lower pulse wave velocity levels as well as the left atrium. "These findings suggest that midday sleepers have less damage from high blood pressure in their arteries and heart," said Dr Kallistratos.

The length and duration of midday sleep was also important. Dr Kallistratos said: "Our study shows that not only is midday sleep associated with lower blood pressure, but longer sleeps are even more beneficial. Midday sleepers had greater dips in blood pressure while sleeping at night which is associated with better health outcomes. We also found that hypertensive patients who slept at noon were under fewer antihypertensive medications compared to those who didn't sleep midday."

He concluded: "We found that midday sleep is associated with lower 24-hour blood pressure, an enhanced fall of BP in night, and less damage to the arteries and the heart. The longer the midday sleep, the lower the systolic BP levels and probably fewer drugs needed to lower BP."