To investigate the effect of improving insomnia on blood pressure levels in elderly patients with hypertension comorbid insomnia.

Data of 179 hospitalized patients with geriatric hypertension combined with insomnia attending Zhejiang Hospital from March 2018 to March 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. General clinical data, sleep indexes and blood pressure of the patients were collected, and the patients' sleep was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scale. At 4 weeks of treatment, the patients were divided into the sleep improvement group and the sleep non-improvement group according to the improvement of PSQI scores, and the effect of the improvement of insomnia on the patients' hypertension level was observed. Nonparametric test and t test were used for comparison of measurement data, χ² test was used for comparison of counting data.

The difference in systolic blood pressure between the two groups at baseline was not statistically significant (t=0.600, P > 0.05), nor was the difference in total PSQI score (Z=1.531, P > 0.05). The sleep improvement group was significantly better than the non-improvement group in sleep quality, time to fall asleep, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and total PSQI score after 4 weeks (Z=4.300, 3.613, 3.491, 5.003, 7.829; P < 0.05). And systolic blood pressure difference, as well as diastolic blood pressure difference before and after treatment of insomnia, were significantly higher in the sleep improvement group than in the sleep non-improvement group after 4 weeks (t=2.274, Z=2.078; P < 0.05).

Improvement in insomnia was effective in reducing blood pressure levels in elderly patients with hypertension combined with insomnia, especially the improvement in sleep duration, time to fall asleep, sleep quality and sleep efficiency had a large impact on blood pressure levels.