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A new study that investigators from the Asklepieion General Hospital in Voula, Greece conducted now suggests that taking a nap at midday can effectively help people lower their blood pressure levels. One of the study researchers, Dr. Manolis Kallistratos, is due to present the findings at the American College of Cardiology’s 68th Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans, LA next Monday.
“Midday sleep lowers blood pressure levels at the same magnitude as other lifestyle changes. For example, salt and alcohol reduction can bring blood pressure levels down by 3 to 5 [millimeters of mercury (mmHg)],” reports Dr. Kallistratos. In this study, the investigators worked with 212 participants who had a mean blood pressure of 129.9 mm Hg.
According to guidelines from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a person has high blood pressure if their readings of systolic blood pressure (pressure during a heartbeat) are 140 mm Hg or higher, and their readings of diastolic blood pressure (pressure between heartbeats) are 90 mm Hg or higher. The participants were, on average, 62 years old, and close to one in four of them smoked, had a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, or both.Dr.
Kallistratos and team split the participants into two groups — one that practiced midday napping and one that did not take up this practice. Over 24 consecutive hours, the researchers took note of the participants’ blood pressure measurements, the duration of their midday naps, their general lifestyle choices (such as alcohol consumption and physical activity), and their pulse wave velocity, which measures artery stiffness. Participants wore ambulatory blood pressure monitoring devices.
Researchers adjusted for potential confounding factors that could affect blood pressure, such as age, biological sex, prescription medication, and lifestyle choices. They noted that there were no significant differences between how many blood pressure drugs participants in the two groups took. They found that people who took a daytime nap saw a 5.3 mm Hg drop in systolic blood pressure, which, the researchers explain, is about as much as someone could expect when taking blood pressure medication or making certain lifestyle changes to lower blood pressure.
Moreover, the team adds that each additional 60 minutes of napping time reduced average 24-hour systolic blood pressure by 3 mm Hg. Dr. Kallistratos explains that taking low doses of specialized drugs can lower a person’s blood pressure levels by about 5–7 mm Hg on average. “These findings are important because a drop in blood pressure as small as 2 mm Hg can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, by up to 10 percent,” says the researcher.