blood pressure spikes during sleep - High & Low Blood Pressure Message Board

rand01 · 05-12-2009, 07:40 AM

I am not on any medications. Lately I have experienced blood pressure spikes during sleep (160/100 ) which quickly go down to normal when I get up and walk around. There must be some research on blood and brain chemistry changes during sleep. Where and what is this information?

caberg · 05-12-2009, 09:31 AM

I would look into two things: (1) sleep apnea; and (2) morning hypertension.

My questions would be, how do you know that your BP is reaching 160/100 when asleep, and at what time of night is this?

My BP is sometimes a little higher when I first roll out of bed. I've read that blood pressure is supposed to dip over the night hours and then rise in the early morning hours before waking up. It's apparantly tied into your internal clock. But a big spike in the middle of the night would be concerning to me.

flowergirl2day · 05-12-2009, 09:42 AM

How did you find out about your blood pressure spikes?

We are allowed to mention books and name authors. Two excellent books dealing with the issues you mentioned are:

Essential Hypertension and Its Causes
Neural and Non-Neural Mechanisms
by Paul Korner

and

Blood Pressure Monitoring In Cardiovascular Medicine and Therapeutics
by William B. White

This is a very good book, dealing mainly with the effects of circadian rhythm on blood pressure during the day and at night, and other related issues. I've only read several sections of interest so far.

The first book is difficult to read at times but right in line with the topic you mentioned - pathophysiology of essential hypertension. It was written for researchers, cardiovascular physicians and neuroscientists, and includes some (experimental) research information.

There are other sources of information. Ask your doctor which ones he uses. With any luck, you just might get a guest pass.

FG

rand01 · 05-12-2009, 03:31 PM

I wake up early in the morning feeling tense, take my blood pressure and sure enough it's much higher than mid-day readings (160/100 ) I have also had two morning nose bleeds

famnd · 05-12-2009, 09:48 PM

Sleep study Doc's should be able to provide you with references about HBP & sleep. After my sleep study, the Dr. said I had to get off Clonidine because it was interfering with my sleep. He told me that there was at least one medical article on the subject.

Maybe you should consider having a sleep study done. Fam