(Image: Getty Images)
Snoring may seem like a harmless nighttime nuisance, but new research suggests it could be a serious red flag for your health. A major international study, led by sleep experts at Flinders University, has found a “significant link between regular nighttime snoring and high blood pressure,” especially in overweight, middle-aged men.
The groundbreaking findings, published in the Nature Digital Medicine journal, mark the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind to date. Researchers used home-based monitoring technology over an extended period to track both snoring patterns and blood pressure levels. More than 12,000 participants worldwide were studied for nine months using under-mattress sleep trackers and FDA-registered blood pressure monitors.
“For the first time, we can objectively say that there is a significant link between regular nighttime snoring and high blood pressure,” said Dr. Bastien Lechat, lead author of the study and a researcher at the College of Medicine and Public Health.
According to the data, 15 percent of participants—mainly overweight men—snored for more than 20 percent of the night on average. “We found that this regular nightly snoring is associated with high blood pressure and uncontrolled hypertension,” Dr. Lechat added.
Professor Danny Eckert, Director of Sleep Health at Flinders University and senior author of the study, also warned of the compounding risks when snoring is accompanied by sleep apnoea—a condition where breathing repeatedly stops during sleep, reports Surrey Live.
“We observed that in those who snore regularly the risk of having uncontrolled hypertension was almost double. This risk almost doubled again in people who snored regularly and had sleep apnoea versus those who did not snore regularly,” he explained.
Snoring, often dismissed as a minor inconvenience, may in fact signal the early onset of serious cardiovascular issues. Poor sleep quality, frequently linked to snoring, can worsen the risk of developing sustained hypertension, which in turn can lead to stroke, heart failure, kidney disease, or heart attacks.
Experts suggest lifestyle changes to reduce snoring, such as weight loss, avoiding alcohol and smoking, sleeping on your side, and steering clear of sleeping pills. In some cases, sleep aids like special pillows or bed wedges may help.
This study offers a wake-up call: snoring shouldn’t be ignored—it might just be your body’s way of asking for help before more dangerous health issues develop.
