Ethnic Differences In Sleep Quality And Blood Pressure Studied

In the United States, African-Americans have higher blood pressure and a gr�ere risk of high blood pressure than whites. In addition, African-Americans report poor sleep quality and have a smaller nocturnal blood pressure than whites, a phenomenon called blood pressure "dipping."



"These ethnic difference in the blood pressure dipping may explain why African Americans are a gr�ere risk of high blood pressure," says Dr. Joel Hughes, Kent State assistant professor of psychology " , as a small step in nighttime blood pressure was associated with an increased Left Ventricular Mass and wall thickness in the heart. "



In this month the issue of American Journal of Hypertension Hughes and his colleagues are exploring the possibility that sleep may contribute to the quality of ethnic differences in blood pressure dipping. They noted that African American students, in comparison to whites, spent less time in bed, slept for a shorter time and took longer to fall asleep. Thus, ethnic differences in the quality of sleep seemed to accompany ethnic differences in blood pressure diving procedures; Whether it is not shown that these differences in the quality of sleep causes ethnic differences in nocturnal blood pressure.



"Obviously, more research is needed," says Hughes. "There are too few studies on ethnic differences in sleep, and the importance of sleep for health is increasingly recognized."



----------------------------< Br> Article adapted from Medical News Today from the original press release. ,
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Source : Melissa Edler


Kent State University