Dr. Saurabh Thosar, Assistant Professor at the Institute and colleagues was awarded a 5 year $2.97 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the effects of sleep and the internal body clock in people with hypertension.

Hypertension is a public health epidemic, and in more than 30% of people with hypertension, blood pressure does not adequately fall during the night compared to daytime values, a phenomenon called “non-dipping.” This non-dipping blood pressure dramatically increases the risk for cardiovascular disease and increases the likelihood of early death in people with hypertension. Yet, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon and the associated increase in cardiovascular risk are unclear.

In this 5 year study, Dr. Thosar and colleagues will conduct intensive outpatient and inpatient studies in people with untreated hypertension to help determine the individual contributions of sleep and the internal body clock to non-dipping blood pressure to further behavioral and circadian time-based treatment of this syndrome.

Dr. Thosar is the principal investigator of this project, and his colleagues on the award include Institute Director Dr. Steven Shea, Portland VA Deputy-Director of Mental Health & Clinical Neurosciences, Dr. Jonathan Emens, Director of OHSU Comprehensive Hypertension Center, Dr. Jose Rueda, Dr. Andrew McHill from the School of Nursing, and Dr. Christopher Minson from the University of Oregon. This study will take place in state-of-the-art facilities at the Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Center at OHSU.

Learn more about Dr. Thosar’s research by visiting his faculty page and lab page.