Does night work increase blood pressure?

oramar · Apr 30, 2009

I know night shift can really mess with your physical as well as your mental health.(I always loved it also) However, it is kind of hard in any particular situation to say if it is the specific cause of a problem. I have heard of MDs telling people they had to get off nights because a certain medical problem could not be controlled. In two cases I saw these people later on and they did see an improvement after getting off of nights.(One was an out of control diabetic and the other did indeed have blood pressure problems)

me&myboys · Apr 30, 2009

My hubby works nights 6 months a year. Whenever he works the nights shifts his bp tends to average out higher than when he is working the day shift. One of his fellow officers had to be place on perm. day shift because of a medical reason, so I do know that some doctors will place a person on days because of certain medical reasons.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Apr 30, 2009

Read a study recently on obstructive sleep apnea and they claimed lack of sleep will raise BP and BS. As you know, it is difficult to sleep adequately when you work nights.

inthesky · May 1, 2009

It raised mine!! I was getting these ridiculous pressures of 140/90 ish when I usually run 105/70 ish. It also wrecked my stomach and it hasn't been the same since!

loricatus · May 1, 2009

It did for me, along with decreasing my innumity where I caught just about everything from patients that I took care of in the ER.

Found a new job and switched to 11A-11P- within 3 weeks my BP went back to normal and didn't even catch a cold for 8 months.

It is a shame because I loved the night shift, it just didn't like me too much.

PiperLPN · May 3, 2009

My BP is so high, 153/98. It goes down after a few nights of sleep but it has me worried. I wonder if I work 2 night shifts and the rest days, if that would help? Any thoughts anyone?

kcochrane · May 3, 2009

My BP has stayed the same. But I LOVE nights. I also maintain about the same schedule on my days off and I sleep better during the day than I ever did at night.

I don't think everyBODY is suited for nights. If you aren't on nights because you want to be, I think that adds to the equation. If you aren't getting adequate sleep either because you can't sleep during the day or you don't sleep during the day - that adds to it. Also, if you are flip flopping your schedule from days to nights, I don't think that's healthy either.

It also does take awhile for the body to adust to a different schedule - I think it took me a good 2-4 months.