‘You’re a candidate for hypertension if you don’t sleep well’ – General Medical Practitioner

A General Medical Practitioner, Dr Emefa Klah, has urged the public to prioritise adequate and quality sleep, warning that persistent sleep deprivation, particularly among people exposed to high levels of stress, can increase the risk of developing high blood pressure.

According to Dr Klah, poor sleeping habits can contribute to a cycle in which stress, inadequate rest and unhealthy lifestyle choices reinforce one another and negatively affect a person's overall health.

Speaking on The Healthy Living Project on the Citi Breakfast Show, Dr Klah stressed the importance of adults getting sufficient sleep, recommending about eight hours of sleep as an important part of maintaining good health.

She explained that people who work in highly demanding environments and regularly experience stress but fail to get adequate rest could be placing themselves at greater risk of health complications, including hypertension.

“Imagine you are a corporate worker and constantly under stress and you are not sleeping well, meaning you are not getting about a minimum of 8 hours of sleep. You are a candidate for high blood pressure because it is like a never-ending cycle. You are stressed at work, you don't sleep well and then you don’t eat well.

“You know we keep advocating for decreasing your sodium intake. When I say sodium, you simply find it in salt. There are people who love salt and what happens is that, if you take in a lot of salt, you retain more water so it increases the volume of your blood and then your heart begins to pump the blood under pressure.”

-citinewsroom