A study on the effects of acute sleep deprivation on pulse pressure
Abstract
Currently a great proportion of our population experiences sleep deprivation. There has been
research carried out previously and depicted an increase in diastolic blood pressure due to
sleep deprivation. This leads to greater risk for diseases and even death in sleep deprived
individuals. For any given level of mean arterial blood pressure, a high or low pulse pressure is
by itself an accurate indicator of an individual’s risk for cardiovascular diseases and even
death. Low and high pulse pressure have been separately linked to increased mortality rates.
There is no available data on any physiological influence of lack of sleep on an individual’s
pulse pressure. Thus this study set out to determine effects of chronic sleep deprivation on
pulse pressure as an independent physiological variable of blood pressure in healthy adults
between ages 20 and 40 years.
This study set out to assess any relationship between chronic sleep deprivation and pulse
pressure in healthy subjects aged between 20 and 40 years. It was a randomized control trial
done at The Karen Hospital involving healthy human subjects working at the hospital aged
between 20 and 40 years.
All subjects who volunteered for the study underwent physical examination. Sociodemographic
characteristics, medical history and sleeping pattern were obtained using the
study questionnaire. A sample size of 56 human subjects was used. An inclusion and exclusion
criteria was used to form a test group of 28 subjects and a control group of 28 subjects. Test
group comprised fourteen males and fourteen females who were sleep deprived. The control
group comprised fourteen males and fourteen females who were non- sleep deprived. The
study was conducted over a period of one month.
On a daily basis, at 7.30 a.m every day, blood pressure readings were taken using a manual
sphygmomanometer for both the test group and the control group. A sleep deprived subject
must have had less than four hours of sleep for the last 24 hours whereas a non- sleep deprived subject must have had more than 6 hrs of sleep in the last 24 hrs. Data was collected
by the principal investigator using predesigned data collection sheets. Pulse pressure and
fractional pulse pressure were derived using their respective formulae. Data was then entered
into Microsoft Excel sheets and data cleaning was done before analysis. These were coded
then analysis done using IBM SPSS software.
All the fifty six subjects who had been recruited were studied. The mean pulse pressure at
recruitment of the control group was 48.09 mmHg while that of the test group was 47.22
mmHg. Both groups at recruitment had an equal mean fractional pulse pressure of 0.54 with
mean age of control group at 28.42 years and that of test group at 27.86 years. By the fourth
week of the study, the control group had a mean 50.0 mmHg and a mean fractional pulse
pressure of 0.58; the test group had a mean pulse pressure of 44.43 mmHg and a mean
fractional pulse pressure of 0.54. A person chi-square test revealed no relationship between
pulse pressure and number of hours slept (Chi square value =165.99 df= 190 p= 0.895). There
was also no relationship between fractional pulse pressure and number of hours slept (Chi-
square value=- 454.98, df= 460, p=0.557). Pearson’s correlation analysis between pulse
pressure and number of hours slept in both groups revealed a non-significant and positive
relationship (p= 0.686). The correlation was weak in strength(r= 0.055). There was an
association between sleeping more hours and having an increased pulse pressure. Correlation
analysis between fractional pulse pressure and number of hours slept revealed a non-
significant and negative relationship (r=-0.046 p=0.739). Multiple regression was also
conducted on overall effect of gender, both the two groups and number of hours slept on
predictors had no relationship with pulse pressure. It was deducted from the study that the
relationship between sleep deprivation and pulse pressure or fractional pulse pressure in
healthy young adults aged between 20 and 40 years is not statistically significant. This was
observed in both the test group and control group throughout the period of the study.
Publisher
University of Nairobi