THE ESSENTIAL
- According to a study, the incidence of hypertension among American adolescents increases from 1.7% between 2018 and 2020 to 2.9% between 2020 and 2022.
- Young people with healthier sleep have a lower risk of developing hypertension.
- However, the authors did not find a significant association between neighborhood noise and the incidence of hypertension.
In a new study, Augusto César Ferreira De Moraes, professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health at UTHealth Houston (United States), and his team wanted to examine the specific link between ambient noise and human health. sleep in the onset of pediatric hypertension. For the purposes of the research, they reviewed data from 3,320 American adolescents from a cohort, called “Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development”, which tracks the biological and behavioral development of young people. The information included blood pressure readings and Fitbit assessments, which measured total sleep time and REM sleep duration during the night. The authors also took into account data on neighborhood noise, the sex of the volunteers, their pubertal stage and their waist size.
Hypertension: 37% lower risk in teens with good sleep habits
The team identified an increase in hypertension incidents across two data periods, 2018 to 2020 and 2020 to 2022, showing an increase from 1.7% to 2.9%. According to the results, published in the journal Journal of the American Heart Associationadolescents had a 37% reduced risk of developing incidents of high blood pressure when they had healthy sleep habits. This means that the young participants slept 9 to 12 hours each night. “Disrupted sleep can lead to changes in the body’s stress response, including elevated levels of stress hormones like cortisol, which can in turn increase blood pressure,” said Augusto César Ferreira De Moraes. According to the scientists, no significant effects were found for neighborhood noise alone or in combination with sleep health.
Sleeping in good conditions is “important for well-being”
Faced with this data, the team highlights the importance of improving sleep behaviors and respecting recommendations. “Consistent sleep schedules, reducing screen time before bed, and creating a calm, quiet sleep environment may help improve sleep quality. Although ambient noise did not have a significant impact “direct effect on hypertension in this study, maintaining a calm and restful sleep environment is still important for overall well-being”, concluded Martin Ma, co-author of the study.
Health
