Sleep and risk of hypertension in general American adults: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (2015–2018)

The purpose of research is to investigate the associations of sleep factors separately and jointly with risk of hypertension.The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) is a nationally representative survey. Participants aged over 20 years with complete and credible data from the NHANES 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 waves were included. Hypertension was assessed based on self-report medical diagnoses, or antihypertensive medication use, or systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg. Sleep information (sleep duration, trouble sleeping, daytime sleepiness, self-reported snoring and sleep-related breathing issue) was obtained from household interview.Of 7426 participants, the mean (standard deviation) age was 48.0 (17.3) years, 3845 (51.8%) were females. The prevalence of hypertension was 32.8%, and lower in those with 7-9 h sleep, no trouble sleeping, no excessive daytime sleepiness, no snoring or sleep apnea symptoms, decreased as the quantity of healthy sleep factors increased. The self-reported short sleep (odds ratio [OR]: 1.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.54, P = 0.032), trouble sleeping (OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.20 to 1.95, P = 0.001), excessive daytime sleepiness (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.01-1.35, P = 0.041) and sleep apnea symptoms (OR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.10-1.61, P = 0.004) were associated with 25%, 53%, 17% and 33% increased risk of hypertension, respectively. Participants with a poor sleep pattern was associated with higher hypertension risk (OR: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.90-3.22, P < 0.001).Sleep behaviors were cross-sectionally associated with a considerably higher hypertension risk.