Not sleeping well makes your body's stress system active, raising blood pressure, while good sleep calms it down and lowers blood pressure.
Scientific Claim
Sleep deprivation increases sympathetic nervous system activity, elevating heart rate and vascular resistance, while restorative sleep enhances parasympathetic activity, reducing cardiac output and vascular resistance.
Original Statement
“Then we have sleep, which affects your blood pressure through yet another mechanism, the autonomic nervous system. Poor sleep increases what we call sympathetic tone, which raises your heart rate and constricts your blood vessels. On the flip side, deep restorative sleep allows the parasympathetic nervous system to take over, which lowers your cardiac output and your vascular resistance at the same time. is literally like switching from the accelerator to the brake.”
Context Details
Domain
cardiology
Population
human
Subject
sleep quality
Action
affects
Target
autonomic nervous system activity
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (2)
This study looks at how lack of sleep affects heart rate in people with insomnia, finding that it can lead to an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system.
This study shows that lack of sleep can increase sympathetic nervous system activity in older women, which can lead to increased blood pressure.
Contradicting (2)
This study looks at how sleep deprivation affects blood pressure, heart function, and blood vessel function in healthy men.
This study looks at how selective sleep deprivation affects the autonomic nervous system in healthy young people.