Association of disrupted sleep with 24-hour blood pressure variability in caregivers

Background: A growing body of research highlights the negative impact of caregiving on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Objectives: This study aimed to examine associations of psychological symptoms and sleep quality with 24-hour blood pressure variability (BPV), which is an independent predictor of CVD, among family caregivers of community-dwelling individuals with chronic illness. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, we assessed caregiving burden and depressive symptoms using questionnaires and 7-day sleep quality (i.e., number of awakenings, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency) using an actigraph. The participants carried out a 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring for systolic and diastolic BPV over 24 h and during awake/sleep times. We performed Pearson's correlations and multiple linear regression. Results: The analytic sample consisted of 30 caregivers (25 female; mean age 62 years). The number of awakenings during sleep was positively correlated with systolic BPV-awake (r = 0.426, p = 0.019) and diastolic BPV-awake (r = 0.422, p = 0.020). Sleep efficiency was negatively correlated with diastolic BPV-awake (r = -0.368, p = 0.045). Caregiving burden and depressive symptoms were not correlated with BPV. After controlling for age and mean arterial pressure, the number of awakenings was significantly associated with increased systolic BPV-24 h (β = 0.194, p = 0.018) and systolic BPV-awake (β = 0.280, p = 0.002), respectively. Conclusions: Caregivers’ disrupted sleep may play a role in increased CVD risk. While these findings should be confirmed in large clinical studies, improving sleep quality would need to be considered in CVD prevention for caregivers.