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Can Sleep Apnea Cause High Blood Pressure? Here’s What You Need to Know

High blood pressure is medically referred to as hypertension. This is a very common medical issue for adults in the United States. This issue presents where the amount of force used to pump blood throughout the body is higher than it should be.

Sleep apnea is one of the most common sleep disorders, where an individual has pauses in breathing while sleeping, resulting in gasping and snoring. With both conditions, there is a high risk that people who have either high blood pressure or sleep apnea are unaware of it until they go to a doctor. This means many people might go without treatment for sleep apnea and high blood pressure, but doing so can increase the risk of developing secondary issues.

Can sleep apnea cause high blood pressure? What is the relationship between sleep apnea and high blood pressure, if any, and what treatment options are there?

can sleep apnea cause high blood pressure

The Sleep Apnea and High Blood Pressure Connection

Sleep apnea and high blood pressure links can exist.

There are two main types of sleep apnea:

  1. The first is obstructive sleep apnea
  2. The second is central sleep apnea

With obstructive sleep apnea individuals have episodes where their airway collapses and this prevents air flow from getting into the lungs while that individual sleeps.

With central sleep apnea, an individual has breathing lapses that relate to disruptive communication between the breathing muscles and the brain.

Does sleep apnea cause high blood pressure? Research indicates that of those two, there is only a link between obstructive sleep apnea and high blood pressure.

How Sleep Apnea Affects Blood Pressure

Sleep apnea affects blood pressure because the airway collapses. With obstructive sleep apnea, each time an airway collapses, it causes a spike in blood pressure. This has a lot to do with the sympathetic nervous system.

The Role of the Sympathetic Nervous System

Sleep deprivation causes a strain on your heart. People who have obstructive sleep apnea have an overactivation of their sympathetic nervous system. When this gets over-activated, it can trigger physical problems, including:

  1. Dilated pupils
  2. Faster heart rate
  3. Increased metabolism
  4. Higher blood pressure

These are normally the types of changes that are activated with a fight-or-flight instinct, when someone experiences acute stress but with obstructive sleep apnea and the individual gets those same types of responses from the sympathetic nervous system on a somewhat regular basis. The body is not intended to support these types of responses on a regular basis which leads to chronically high blood pressure.

Each time someone with obstructive sleep apnea has an airway collapse and their breathing stops while they sleep, the nervous system is triggered, and the blood pressure increases alongside the dilated pupils and faster heart rate. If that same person wakes up after they have stopped breathing, that spike in the central nervous system response and blood pressure gets even higher.

Moreover, this leads to higher releases of stress hormones, including epinephrine and dopamine or adrenaline. This higher level of stress means higher resting adrenaline levels, which can cause higher blood pressure and put you at risk for increased cardiovascular problems.

Research Linking Sleep Apnea to Hypertension

It’s estimated that an average of 5% of the general population have obstructive sleep apnea. However, research indicates that 35% of people with hypertension also have obstructive sleep apnea. Around 50% of people with obstructive sleep apnea have high blood pressure.

How does this work?

People with obstructive sleep apnea are at a higher risk of blood pressure patterns that increase the risk of cardiovascular disorders, like waking up with a sudden spike in blood pressure, something called a morning surge. This can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension.

Additionally, some studies reveal that daytime blood pressure levels for people with obstructive sleep apnea increase as the condition increases, and this means leaving your condition untreated will lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and a higher risk of blood pressure problems, including hypertension.

sleep apnea

Treatment Options for Sleep Apnea and Hypertension

Sleep apnea can be treated by non-invasive and surgical options.

There are multiple non-invasive treatment options, including a CPAP, which is the most common treatment option. This is a machine that plugs into the wall and sits next to the bed. An individual wears a mask that is connected to the machine, and the machine blows air through the airway into the nose and mouth. This is something that an individual has to wear every night, but when the airway collapses, the air is continually pushed into the lungs so it doesn’t cause that same spike in blood pressure.

Similar machines like a BiPAP or APAP work in similar ways, releasing air while an individual sleeps and ensuring that it gets inhaled so that an individual with obstructive sleep apnea does not have the same choking experiences that cause them to wake in the middle of the night, increasing the risks of blood pressure spikes.

Surgical options include removing or shrinking tissue that could be causing physical blockages, changing the position of the tongue, surgery on the nasal cavities, or jaw repositioning.

That said, many of the treatments that are available for obstructive sleep apnea could potentially improve hypertension as well.

Things like lifestyle changes and weight loss can help manage obstructive sleep apnea and reduce the risk not just of sleep apnea but of secondary hypertension issues.

The Importance of Early Diagnosis and Treatment

It is essential that anyone who struggles with sleep problems get an early diagnosis and treatment. There are several long-term health risks associated with untreated sleep apnea and high blood pressure, including severe cardiovascular risks. These risks can be thwarted by regular checkups and tests specifically for both sleep apnea and high blood pressure.

Summing up

Does sleep apnea cause high blood pressure? There is a strong connection between sleep apnea and high blood pressure. Unfortunately many people who have one or the other, or both, do not realize it until it is discovered during another type of routine medical exam. For this reason, it’s important to seek medical treatment for both conditions as soon as you notice any signs or symptoms in order to prevent serious, long-term health complications.