The relationship between morning hypertension and sleep quality in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of abnormal diurnal blood pressure (BP) profiles in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in relation to the data of a sleep study. Total 103 patients newly diagnosed with OSAS underwent overnight polysomnography and 24-hour ambulatory BP measurements. Patients without morning or nocturnal hypertension (control group), patients with morning hypertension but not nocturnal hypertension (surge-type group), and patients with both morning and nocturnal hypertension (sustained-type group) were compared. Morning hypertension was present in 54 patients (16 surge-type and 38 sustained-type). The apnea-hypopnea index and sleep efficiency were higher and lower, respectively, in the sustained-type group than in the other groups. Slow-wave sleep incidence was significantly lower in the sustained-type and surge-type groups than in the control group. These results suggest that approximately half the OSAS patients displayed morning hypertension, the sustained-type being more common than the surge-type. Poor sleep quality plays an important role in the pathogenesis of morning hypertension in both the sustained- and the surge-type group.