A New Study Unravels The Curious Way Your Sleep Cycle Can Affect Your Blood Pressure – Health Digest

You have an internal clock in your brain that controls the actions of your organs, tissues, and cells. Some of the genes within your cells work with this internal clock, acting as hands to transmit specific functions and provide feedback to the central clock. This circadian rhythm is about 24 hours, which is convenient given that each day has 24 hours.

You also have your own behavioral rhythms, such as what time you go to bed at night and wake up each morning. The daylight hours help to keep this rhythm in sync during the day. What time you eat and how active you are during the day will also impact this daily rhythm. That’s why late-night eating isn’t such a great idea.

Your blood pressure also responds to your daily rhythms. Healthy people will see their blood pressure dip from 10% to 20% in the evening. People with hypertension will also see a similar dip, but up to one-third of them might be non-dippers or reverse dippers. This means that the heart rate doesn’t drop at night, or it increases at night.