Canberra: Australian research has found a link between snoring and elevated blood pressure. 

According to the study, which was conducted by sleep scientists from Flinders University in South Australia, people who regularly snore at night are more likely to have elevated blood pressure and uncontrolled hypertension, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hypertension occurs when the pressure in a person’s blood vessels is too high. It can cause serious damage to the heart and lead to heart attack, stroke, heart failure and heart disease.

Blood pressure is recorded in millimetres of mercury (mmHg) as two numbers such as 120/80. The first number – the systolic blood pressure – measures the pressure in the arteries as the heart pumps out blood and the second – diastolic blood pressure – is the pressure as the heart relaxes before the next beat.

The study found that 15 per cent of 12,287 participants snored for more than 20 per cent of the night on average over a six-month monitoring period and that those with high snoring levels had a 3.8 mmHg higher systolic blood pressure and 4.5 mmHg higher diastolic blood pressure than participants who did not snore.

The Flinders University study was the first to use multiple night home-based monitoring technologies over a prolonged period to investigate the link between snoring and hypertension. Participants in the study were middle-aged and 88 percent were male.

“For the first time, we can objectively say that there is a significant connection between regular nighttime snoring and high blood pressure,” Bastien Lechat, lead author of the research from the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University, said in a media release on Wednesday.

“These results emphasise the significance of considering snoring as a factor in healthcare and treatment for sleep-related issues, especially in the context of managing hypertension.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.28 billion adults aged 30-79 years worldwide have hypertension and that 46 per cent of adults with hypertension are unaware they have the condition.