A recent study conducted in the United States has found that sticking to a consistent bedtime each night helps lower blood pressure and maintain heart health. As part of the study, published in the scientific journal of the University of Oxford, researchers tracked the sleep habits of 11 adults with high blood pressure for a week. They then asked the volunteers to choose a specific time to go to bed each night and stick to it for two weeks, without requiring them to get a set number of hours of sleep or take any naps during the day. Before the experiment, the volunteers' bedtime typically varied by up to 30 minutes each night, but during the test, this variation was reduced to just seven minutes. The research team from the University of Oregon and the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences in the US confirmed that maintaining a consistent sleep schedule during the test period helped lower systolic (top) blood pressure by an average of four points and diastolic (bottom) pressure by three points throughout a 24-hour period. This effect is comparable to reducing salt intake or engaging in physical exercise. The study also revealed that a regular sleep schedule leads to a greater reduction in blood pressure during sleep: five points for systolic and four for diastolic. It is known that a five-point reduction in systolic pressure lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease by 10%. Researchers, in comments to the medical website 'Health Day', state that irregular sleep disrupts the body's circadian rhythms, which regulate sleep and heart function, whereas a fixed sleep schedule helps establish healthy sleep patterns. The researchers believe that if further trials confirm these findings, adhering to a consistent bedtime each night could become a cheap and easy way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
