HELP-HY: Health Education and sLeep Program in HYpertension

Hypertension is the major risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases worldwide. The escalating prevalence of inadequate sleep now parallels that of hypertension. Observational and experimental evidence favoring a causal relation between insufficient sleep and hypertension are particularly compelling - sleeping 6 hours or less per night is associated with a 20-32% higher probability of incident hypertension. Since sleep curtailment is largely voluntary, sleep deficiency may be corrected and the detrimental health consequences potentially reversed. In this study the investigators aim to investigate the effects of 8 weeks of sleep enhancement/extension vs health education in prehypertensive and stage 1 hypertensive subjects who report habitual short sleep (≤6.5 hours/night).