• Posted November 26, 2025

Regular Bedtime Does Wonders for Blood Pressure

A step as simple at sticking to the same bedtime each night could improve a person’s blood pressure, new research suggests. 

In just two weeks, people whose more haphazard bedtimes shifted to a regular bedtime saw improvements in blood pressure that were equal to those seen when folks exercise more or cut down on salt intake, the study showed. 

“This may be a simple, yet low-risk, adjunctive strategy to control blood pressure in many people with hypertension,” wrote a team of researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), in Portland.  

The study was small, involving 11 middle-aged people who already had hypertension. But the results were so striking that the team said “this ought to be tested in a larger randomized controlled trial.”

The study was led by OHSU associate professor of occupational health Saurabh Thosar and was published Nov. 17 in the journal Sleep Advances.

As the researchers explained, it’s long been known that day-to-day shifts in when a person goes to bed are linked to poorer heart health. One study found that irregular bedtimes could boost a person’s odds for high blood pressure by 30%.

According to the Oregon team, disruptions in the body’s circadian rhythms probably account for irregular bedtimes’ effects on blood pressure.

Researchers explained that blood pressure naturally declines a bit during sleep, but a disrupted “body clock” might weaken that response.

In the study, Thosar’s group monitored blood pressure in 11 middle aged adults as they underwent one week of their normal (less regular) sleep/wake cycle.  

They then asked the participants to stick to a set bedtime for two weeks. That meant that the difference in night-to-night bedtimes went from an average of 30 minutes to only about seven minutes.  

Participants weren’t asked to change how long they slept, only the timing of their bedtimes. 

The result: 24-hour blood pressure dropped by 4 mmHg systolic and 3 mmHg diastolic (the top and bottom numbers on a reading). That’s the equivalent of big lifestyle changes like cutting down on sodium or exercising more frequently, the team said. 

Heart experts already know that a systolic reading reduction of even 5mmHG can lower cardiovascular risks by 10%, the researchers noted. 

According to the researchers, if the study results are replicated in a larger, prospective trial, efforts to get folks to stick to regular bedtimes “could be low-cost and highly scalable interventions to reduce cardiovascular risk."

More information

Find out more about connections between sleep and heart health at the American Heart Association.

SOURCE: Oregon Health & Sciences University, news release, Nov. 17, 2025