SDB and hypertension

People with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) have an increased risk of developing hypertension, independent of all relevant risk factors.^{1-4, 7} This risk is related to SDB severity; the more severe the SDB, the greater the risk of developing hypertension.

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

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

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