Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Oct 31;15(10):e48029.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.48029. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Evaluation of the Diurnal Cycle of Blood Pressure and Sleep in Shift Workers

Divya Gupta  1   2 , Latika Mohan  1 , Arun Goel  1 , Rajesh Kathrotia  3
Affiliations

Evaluation of the Diurnal Cycle of Blood Pressure and Sleep in Shift Workers

Divya Gupta et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background: Circadian misalignment of physiological factors in shift workers is poorly studied in the Indian population. In the present study, 24-hour blood pressure measurements were taken on the same subject twice, once during his morning and night shifts. Sleep was also monitored by a self-reported sleep diary, which was confirmed with an activity monitor, and the sleep quality was assessed using sleep questionnaires.

Objective: This study aimed to discover the pattern of blood pressure variation, the dipping and non-dipping status, and its correlation with sleep.

Methodology: This observational study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh, from April 2019 to September 2019, among security guards working rotating shifts in the Rishikesh hospital premises. Participants were given an activity sheet with instructions to document their daily activities for a complete 24-hour period on the designated measurement day, including recording the time of waking up and going to sleep. A wrist-worn activity monitor was utilised to assess the self-reported sleep duration provided by each participant on the activity sheet.

Results: The present study showed the mean age of the participants as 27.03 ± 2.71 years, along with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 22.10 ± 1.64. Sleep duration was significantly higher during the morning shift (5.81 ± 1.08 hours) compared to the night shift (4.02 ± 1.70 hours) on the day of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) recording. The mean difference in systolic blood pressure between night shift workers between their awake and sleep periods was 15.91 ± 8.44 mmHg. However, no statistically significant disparity was seen when comparing the systolic blood pressure at the 24-hour mark during wakefulness and sleep between those working morning and night shifts (p >0.05).

Conclusion: The current study's findings indicate that participation in shift work, particularly night shift work, could potentially play a role in the emergence of irregular circadian blood pressure patterns and potentially lead to a lack of nocturnal blood pressure decline.

Keywords: ambulatory blood pressure; blood pressure monitoring; circadian; diurnal; shift work tolerance; sleep pattern.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Variation of SBP in a 24-hour cycle during morning and night shift
SBP: Systolic BP
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Shift work and the risk of cardiovascular disease. A systematic review and meta-analysis including dose-response relationship. Torquati L, Mielke GI, Brown WJ, Kolbe-Alexander T. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2018;44:229–238. - PubMed
    1. Shift work and vascular events: systematic review and meta-analysis. Vyas MV, Garg AX, Iansavichus AV, et al. BMJ. 2012;345:0. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Relationship between shift work and onset of hypertension in a cohort of manual workers. Morikawa Y, Nakagawa H, Miura K, et al. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1999;25:100–104. - PubMed
    1. Repetitive exposure to shortened sleep leads to blunted sleep-associated blood pressure dipping. Yang H, Haack M, Gautam S, Meier-Ewert HK, Mullington JM. J Hypertens. 2017;35:1187–1194. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Association between rotating night shift work and risk of coronary heart disease among women. Vetter C, Devore EE, Wegrzyn LR, et al. JAMA. 2016;315:1726–1734. - PMC - PubMed