SDB and hypertension

People with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) have an increased risk of developing hypertension, independent of all relevant risk factors.^{1, 2, 3, 4}  This risk is related to SDB severity; the more severe the SDB, the greater the risk of developing hypertension.²

During healthy sleep, blood pressure decreases, but SDB patients instead tend to experience:

• elevated blood pressure during sleep²
• prolonged cardiovascular stress, which can lead to increased blood pressure also occurring during the day¹.

SDB is present in more than 30% of patients with hypertension,⁶ and in around 80% of patients with drug resistant hypertension.⁷ For this group of patients in particular, treatment with positive airway pressure therapy may be especially important.^{8, 5}