The perfect bedtime for a healthy start: Going to bed at 11pm reduces the risk of high blood pressure and keeps the heart healthy for men
- Bedtime at 11pm will reduce men’s high blood pressure and improve heart health
- Study found for women’s cardiac health the perfect time to sleep is at midnight
- Sleeping later or sleeping too much or not enough had negative health impacts
Going to bed at 11pm reduces the risk of high blood pressure and keeps the heart healthy – if you’re a man, say scientists.
But for women, the perfect time to sleep is midnight.
Researchers who studied more than 14,000 men and women found those sticking to these bedtimes on most nights of the week had the lowest chance of cardiac problems.
But retiring for the night earlier or later increased the chances of developing high blood pressure, also called hypertension, as it could mean people are sleeping too much or too little – both of which have been linked with higher readings.
Researchers at the University of South China said the risk of high blood pressure ‘gradually decreased with the delay of bedtime’ (file image)
For men, the perfect time to go to bed for heart hearlth is 11pm. But for women, the time is an hour later, at midnight (file image)
Around one in five adults in the UK suffers with high blood pressure. It is a major cause of heart attacks and strokes.
Blood pressure, which describes the strength at which your blood pushes on the sides of your arteries as it is pumped around your body, is measured in millimetres of mercury – or mmHg.
A high reading is classed as anything above 140/90mmHg.
Smoking, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle can all raise the risks but studies show irregular sleep patterns are also a factor.
Previous studies have found getting between seven and nine hours a night protects against raised blood pressure.
Researchers at the University of South China, in Hengyang, tracked 14,536 adults of all ages to see how sleeping habits affected their heart health.
The results, published in the journal Postgraduate Medicine, showed men who usually went to sleep at 11pm were 32 per cent less likely to get high blood pressure than others hitting the sack earlier or later.
For the women, the healthiest bedtime was midnight.
In a report on their findings researchers said: ‘The risk of high blood pressure gradually decreased with the delay of bedtime.
‘But the effect seems to differ significantly between genders.
‘For men the time point of the lowest risk was 11pm but for women it was midnight.’
They added getting to sleep at other times may skew the body’s internal clock, which can cause blood pressure to spike.
It may also reflect high levels of mental stress which can also increase the risk to the heart.