Summary: Research reveals that people with high blood pressure who also sleep less than six hours per night face increased risks of brain injury, accelerated brain aging, and impaired executive function. The study assessed 682 participants from the Framingham Heart Study, analyzing sleep patterns, blood pressure, cognitive performance, and brain MRIs.
These risks were not present in individuals with normal blood pressure, highlighting a concerning interaction between sleep deprivation and hypertension. Researchers suggest treating sleep problems and hypertension as potential interventions to protect brain health and delay cognitive decline.
Key Facts:
- Combined Risk: Short sleep and hypertension together significantly worsen cognitive function and brain health compared to either condition alone.
- Brain MRI Findings: High blood pressure paired with insufficient sleep is associated with brain injury and markers of accelerated brain aging.
- Intervention Opportunity: Treating sleep problems and lowering blood pressure could offer new strategies for preventing brain-related aging and injury.
Source: Monash University
People with high blood pressure who also lack sleep may be at increased risk of reduced cognitive performance and greater brain injury, Monash University research has found.
Published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers assessed whether the combined effect of hypertension and short sleep duration had a negative impact on brain health.
They used data from 682 dementia-free Framingham Heart Study participants who completed overnight sleep recordings, self-reported sleep duration questionnaires, blood pressure and cognitive assessments; 637 underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
In those with high blood pressure, shorter sleep duration was associated with poorer executive functioning and markers of brain injury and accelerated brain ageing on MRI. These associations were not observed in people with normal blood pressure.
These results were similar following adjustment for genetic, clinical and demographic variables.
Insufficient sleep is generally defined as less than seven hours. Participants reported sleeping an average of seven hours per night, with 32 percent reporting a short sleep duration of less than six hours per night.
Moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnoea was identified in 16 per cent of individuals, and almost one‐quarter of the overall sample reported using sleeping pills regularly.
“In individuals with hypertension, shorter sleep duration was associated with worse cognitive performance and greater brain injury,” the study found.
“Inadequate sleep has been linked to hypertension and dementia, and though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, it is possible that short sleep and hypertension interact to increase the risk of cognitive impairment and vascular brain injury.”
While the cohort was based in the US, researchers believe the results would be similar in Australia.
Senior author Associate Professor Matthew Pase, from the Monash University School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, said short sleep duration was already associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.
He said while short sleep was associated with elevated blood pressure, the combination of short sleep and hypertension on brain health was unclear before this study.
“These findings have significance, given that over one-third of Australians experience sleep problems,” Associate Professor Pase said.
“Importantly, sleep problems and hypertension are treatable. Addressing these factors may offer new opportunities for intervention to improve brain health.”
First author Dr Stephanie Yiallourou, from the Monash University School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, said screening people with high blood pressure for insufficient sleep could allow tailored therapies to improve brain aging and reduce brain injury.
Dr Yiallourou said they could also be targeted for new randomised controlled trials to determine the efficacy of sleep treatments and blood pressure–lowering therapies in preventing or delaying cognitive impairment.
“The next step in this research is to explore whether the double hit of short sleep and hypertension is associated with dementia risk in the long-term,” she said.
Funding: This work was supported by an Alzheimer’s Association Grant.
About this sleep and brain aging research news
Author: Matthew Pase
Source: Monash University
Contact: Matthew Pase – Monash University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Short Sleep Duration and Hypertension: A Double Hit for the Brain” by Matthew Pase et al. Journal of the American Heart Association
Abstract
Short Sleep Duration and Hypertension: A Double Hit for the Brain
Background
Short sleep duration has been associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment and dementia. Short sleep is associated with elevated blood pressure, yet the combined insult of short sleep and hypertension on brain health remains unclear.
We assessed whether the association of sleep duration with cognition and vascular brain injury was moderated by hypertensive status.
Methods and Results
A total of 682 dementia‐free participants (mean age, 62±9 years; 53% women) from the Framingham Heart Study completed assessments of cognition, office blood pressure, and self‐reported habitual and polysomnography‐derived sleep duration; 637 underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging.
Linear regressions were performed to assess effect modification by hypertensive status on total sleep time (coded in hours) and cognitive and magnetic resonance imaging outcomes.
There was a significant interaction between sleep duration and hypertensive status when predicting executive function/processing speed (Trail Making B‐A) and white matter hyperintensities.
When results were stratified by hypertensive status, longer sleep duration was associated with better executive functioning/processing speed scores in the hypertensive group (meaning that shorter sleep duration was associated with poorer executive function/processing speed scores) (self‐report sleep: β=0.041 [95% CI, 0.012–0.069], P=0.005; polysomnography sleep: β=0.045 [95% CI, 0.002–0.087], P=0.038), but no association was observed for the normotensive group.
Similarly, shorter subjective sleep duration was associated with higher white matter hyperintensity burden in the hypertensive group (β=−0.115 [95% CI, −0.227 to −0.004], P=0.042), but not in the normotensive group.
Conclusions
In individuals with hypertension, shorter sleep duration was associated with worse cognitive performance and greater brain injury.
