The America College of Cardiology has started doing extensive research on ways to lower blood pressure without utilizing medicinal outlets. Although napping may just seem like a great way to energize yourself during the day, studies are showing that it can have effects on your body that lower blood pressure over time. For anyone struggling with high blood pressure, this can serve as a way to try and minimize the issue while giving your body an added boost during the day.
The study that was done consisted of 212 people at an average of 62 years with a little more than half being female. The average blood pressure of the group was around 129.9 mm Hg. Not only did the group consist of a decent number of smokers, but also people who have Type 2 diabetes and each group, the ones who napped and the ones who didn’t, all had around the same risk factors for heart disease.
During the study, each group was reviewed for 24 hours continuously. This consisted of monitoring what their average sleep time was during the day, their pulse, artery stiffness, and their lifestyle habits which included anything and everything from smoking, how much alcohol, coffee, and salt they consumed, and what physical activity they participated in. Each day, in order to track blood pressure during daily routines, the participants would wear a monitor.
The researchers took into consideration different factors of each participant that could potentially impact blood pressure levels such as gender, age, medication, and lifestyle choices. Once they were able to assess their findings, it was very evident the significant drop in blood pressure in the group who took advantage of a daily nap as opposed to the ones who did not.
While researchers aren’t encouraging people to sleep most of the day, they found that a short nap in the middle of the day will not only recharge the body but will also help to decrease blood pressure levels significantly. This is proving to be true for most all people no matter their lifestyle habits and medications they are currently taking.
Because so many people are living with heart disease and high blood pressure, these continued studies around how to reduce the possible effects of heart attacks and strokes, are essential to a healthy lifestyle and ageing process of adults. Researchers will continue to study this substantial possibility of mid-day naps helping to decrease high blood pressure levels.