A new study found that men who slept the poorest had an 80 percent greater risk of developing high blood pressure than their well-rested cohorts. According to USAToday, those men who got the least amount of slow-wave sleep, which is the deeper stage of slumber, had a much greater risk of developing high blood pressure than men who with the highest amounts of refreshing slow-wave sleep.
The study, which was published in Hypertension, evaluated the sleeping patterns of 784 men whose average age was 75. When the men were first evaluated in 2003 to 2005, none of the men had high blood pressure. But when they returned for a follow-up in 2007 to 2009, 243 of them had developed hypertension.
The men were divided into four groups — from those with the least amount of slow-wave sleep to those who had the most. Even when other factors such as weight and race were taken into account, the link between high blood pressure and low-wave sleep held.
"Reductions in the deepest stage of sleep is specifically associated with an increased risk of developing high blood pressure," Dr. Susan Redline, the Peter C. Farrell Professor of Sleep Medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School, told msnbc.com.
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