On November 10, I posted on how important sleep was for a longer and healthier life. I Indicated I had a revelation which could well be the key to solving my sleep problem.
This clue had to do with the fact that I had difficulty sleeping when my blood pressure was high. So I searched the world-wide web and found numerous studies linking poor sleep to high blood pressure. Amazing, in that I've been taking these hypertension pills for decades and I never in the past connected high blood pressure with trouble sleeping. From Harvard.
- Compared to women who slept seven to eight hours daily, those who slept six or five hours were 7% and 10% more likely to develop hypertension.
- Those women who had trouble falling or staying asleep were 14% to 28% more likely to have high blood pressure.
- Surely, can't be much different for males, too.
- Is it true that not getting enough sleep can cause high blood pressure?
Possibly. Sleep experts recommend that adults get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Getting less than six hours of sleep is known to be bad for overall health. Stress, jet lag, shift work and other things that disturb sleep make heart disease more likely. Not getting enough sleep makes you more likely to have risk factors for heart disease, including obesity and diabetes. A regular lack of sleep may lead to high blood pressure, also called hypertension, in children and adults.
The less you sleep, the higher your blood pressure may go. People who sleep six hours or less may have steeper increases in blood pressure. If you already have high blood pressure, not sleeping well may make your blood pressure worse.
Too much sleep is not as bad as too little sleep. But too much sleep can lead to high blood sugar and weight gain, which can affect heart health.
- At certain times of the day my pressure can be 160/90 at the end of the pill cycle, but after a large lunch with beer, this drops to 95/55 sometimes. Of course, I get very sleepy.
- I found some years ago that when I walked on a golf course, I should not have much to eat before teeing off.
- Around the sixth hole, my pulse can go up to 110/minute.
- There is a reverse effect of pulse rate and blood pressure.
- At that high heart beep, my body drops the pressure to 100/55, and sometimes lower.
- So by the sixth hole, when I go up to pick up a ball in the hole, I get dizzy.
- Finally figured out not to take a hypertension pill before golfing, and not have a huge bento before golf.
- Low blood pressure problem solved.
- On this trip, I measured my blood pressure when I could not sleep, and it was always too high.
- I take one of the small pills just before going to bed, which would drop my blood pressure to aid sleep. However, when on a trip, there are so many other factors that neutralize the effect of the pill. Something about being on a cruising ship tends to hurt.
- But, in general, my sleep performance improves when my blood pressure is lower, and causes problems when high.
- I take two types of hypertension-reduction pills. Daily, two of a smallish white pill and one of a large tan colored variety, which also is a diuretic. To provide some sleep options, I have cut the large pill in two or three pieces to lower my blood pressure when I awake at night, but take only a piece because it is also a diuretic, working with the smaller pills only if possible.
- I'm still figuring out what best to do, and in the meantime, am struggling to maintain any kind of consistent night-to-night sleep.
- Much more to come.
- More than one-third of adults don't get enough sleep.
- Circadian rhythms are important.
- Thus changing a lot of time zones can really affect sleep.
- In the past, this did not bother me much.
- Now it does.
- But, possibly, I do okay when traveling West, and poorly when going East, which is the problem on this latest travel itinerary.
- Exile your phone from your bedroom. I don't have a phone problem.
- Calm the body and mind before bed. Reduce stress. I am trying this now.
- Listen to something relaxing.
- I do this at home by playing meditating-type sounds like Soundstream.
- Helps if I can't associate the sounds with music I know.
- I set these sounds to end in a half an hour to an hour.
- There are more clues in this article.
Well, our trip continues, and we moved from the Schipol Airport Sheraton to Marriott Amsterdam. Some photos, beginning with scenes from the airport area outside of the hotel.
Bought a different kind of Cup of Noodle, soba, the only food expense we will have in our Amsterdam days because the late and free breakfast is quite filling, ending the day in the hotel executive club for drinks and snacks.
The breakfast buffet at the Sheraton was excellent, with free Prosecco.
We took a taxi to the Marriott Amsterdam. Met by my blue-bar pigeon.
- The scientific term is explosive cyclogenesis.
- Can produce winds of 74-95 MPH, although in October 2010, reached Category 3 hurricane strength over 31 states in the U.S. and six Canadian provinces.
- Active regions are the Northwest Pacific, North Atlantic, Southwest Pacific and South Atlantic.
- Occurs in the winter and averages 45/year in he Northern Hemisphere and 26/year in the south.
- First identified by the Bergen School of Meteorology in Norway in the 1940s.
- Watch CBS on the latest bomb cyclone over the Pacific Northwest.
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