People who feel irresistibly drowsy during the day but toss and turn for a long time after going to bed at night face up to a more than threefold higher risk of hypertension, according to a study. A large-scale observational study confirmed that a sleep pattern combining daytime sleepiness and difficulty falling asleep shows a statistically significant association with high blood pressure.
According to the medical community on Wednesday, a research team led by Dr. Slobodanka Pejovic at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine recently presented its analysis of the link between excessive daytime sleepiness and hypertension in 1,741 adults at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine meeting (SLEEP 2026). The study was also published in a special issue of the international journal Sleep.
The research team conducted eight-hour polysomnography tests on all participants. The 786 participants who did not have hypertension were followed for an average of 7.5 years. Excessive daytime sleepiness was defined as moderate or greater sleepiness symptoms or sleep attacks at a level difficult to resist.
The analysis found that people with excessive daytime sleepiness were 52% more likely to currently have hypertension than those without it, and their risk of newly developing hypertension later was 74% greater. When delayed sleep onset (taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep) was added, the risk rose more steeply.
The group in which both daytime sleepiness and delayed sleep onset were identified saw their current hypertension risk jump to 2.34 times and their risk of future hypertension to 3.43 times. These results held even after statistically adjusting for major variables including age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking, drinking, diabetes, depression, sleep apnea, and total sleep time.
"The pattern of being sleepy during the day but unable to fall asleep easily at night may be a distinct high-risk group associated with 'hyperarousal,' in which the body cannot escape a state of wakefulness," Pejovic said. "Identifying these characteristics early can contribute to establishing more precise diagnoses and customized treatment strategies."
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the prevalence of hypertension among adults aged 19 and older in Korea was 20.0% as of 2023, or about one in five adults. As of 2019 to 2021, the awareness rate among those with hypertension was only 71.2%, meaning about three out of 10 do not know they have the condition.
