Reuters recently reported on a study  publised in the journal Hypertension that links high blood pressure to women who regularly slept  fewer seven hours. 

The study followed more than 10,000 women for a period of five years, and the conclusion suggests that women who routinely got less than seven hours of sleep each day were 42 percent more likely to develop high blood pressure as compared to women who said they slept seven hours a night on a regular basis.

Although there's been a lot of focus lately on the relationship between high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and reduced sleep caused by disorders such as sleep apnea, and/or lifestyle factors such as excessive alcohol drinking, smoking, or being overweight. The conclusion has been that the disorders, and/or lifestyle factors are responsible for the poor sleep.

However, what's noteworthy about this new  study is that for the first time it shows that lack of adequate amount of sleep highly increases the chance of developing high blood pressure even in the absence of any health condition or inadequate lifestyle factors.

The researchers think that lack of sufficient sleep contributes to high blood pressure by keeping the nervous system in a state of hyperactivity. This in turn affects other bodily systems, including the heart and blood vessels. 

The study did not reveal a clear relationship between amount of sleep and blood pressure among men. However, the research team did conclude that more studies are needed to confirm wheteh sleep duration, itself, affects blood pressure levels, and why these effects might be different in women and men.