A Good Night’s Sleep Helps Keep Blood Pressure Low

It was Mark Twain who boasted that he had never done any exercise other than sleeping and resting. Now, according to research conducted at the University of Chicago, it looks like the great American writer was onto something good. The Tufts Health & Nutrition Newsletter reports on the study, which suggests that for every
one-hour reduction in sleep, the risk of
hypertension increased 37 percent. The researchers also found that shorter
sleep times were linked with
higher blood pressure
levels and adverse
changes in blood pressure. The study, which followed 535 people whose average age was 40, found that most people fall far short of the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep per night: 43 percent of study participants averaged fewer
than six hours of sleep per night, while
only 1 percent averaged eight or more hours.

Read more from the Tufts Health & Nutrition Newsletter.

Read more about the dangers of too little sleep.