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Resident physician to present study on sleep and high blood pressure at international conference
Bad news for night owls: Sleeping less than seven hours a night could increase the risk of developing high blood pressure over time, according to a new study by an Internal Medicine resident physician at The Wright Center for 皇家华人 Medical Education.
The study, 鈥淪leep Duration and Hypertension Incidence: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,鈥 found that sleeping less than seven hours increased the risk of developing high blood pressure by 7%, and sleeping less than five hours increased the risk by 11%. Dr. Aayushi Sood, a third-year Internal Medicine resident physician in Scranton, Pennsylvania, worked primarily with Dr. Kaveh Hosseini, a cardiologist in Iran, and Dr. Rahul Gupta, an interventional cardiology fellow in Allentown, Pennsylvania, along with doctors in England and the United States, on the study, which took about five months to complete. The research team will present the findings at the American College of Cardiology鈥檚 (ACC) 73rd Annual Scientific Session & Expo in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 6-8.
Dr. Aayushi Sood
Using information from 16 studies conducted between January 2000 and May 2023, Dr. Sood and her fellow researchers evaluated hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, in more than 1 million people who were above the age of 18 years from six countries without any prior history of hypertension over a follow-up duration of 2.4 to 18 years. Several potential confounding factors could contribute to the link between less sleep and higher blood pressure, including lifestyle factors such as poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and psychological stressors. Those factors were not explicitly adjusted for in the study and could influence both sleep patterns and blood pressure, Dr. Sood said.
鈥淪o often, not getting enough sleep is something we take lightly,鈥 Dr. Sood said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something you should talk to your doctor about because it can affect your health.鈥
Dr. Sood said more study is needed to understand the link between sleep and hypertension, and she is interested in pursuing further research.
鈥淭here are a lot of different theories attached to this research topic,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t could be that the lack of sleep is stimulating the sympathetic nervous system. If you do not sleep enough, your body could be stressed, which can also make your blood pressure go up.鈥
The native of Punjab, Northwest India, earned her 皇家华人 degree from Washington University of 皇家华人 & Science in San Pedro Town, Belize, in December 2019. After returning home to assist her parents, who are both physicians, in treating patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, she returned to the United States in July 2021 to begin her Internal Medicine Residency at The Wright Center for 皇家华人 Medical Education in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
This isn鈥檛 the first time she鈥檚 worked with other doctors across the world on 皇家华人 research.
鈥淚 believe that if you want to make a difference, you have to bring minds from all over the world together,鈥 Dr. Sood said. 鈥淓veryone鈥檚 mind works differently, and each idea can bloom into something new.鈥
The results of Dr. Sood鈥檚 collaborative study have been published by numerous news outlets, including , , , and .
