Dream anxiety, chronotype and dipping pattern in hypertensive patients assessed with 24 h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring

The purpose of the present study was to investigate dream anxiety, impulsivity, and chronotypes in patients with dipper/non-dipper hypertension and to compare with healthy controls. Sixty-two patients diagnosed with hypertension and 33 healthy individuals were recruited in this study. A history of current psychiatric illness or psychotropic drug usage, significant cardiac, medical or neurological disease and pregnancy were the exclusion criterias for the study. All patients and healthy controls underwent 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. The Van Dream Anxiety Scale, Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, Barratt Impulsivity Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were administered to all participants. There were two groups; patients with hypertension (dipper, n = 26 and non-dipper, n = 36) and healthy controls (n = 33). No differences between groups among gender (chi(2) = 4.42 and p = 0.110) and mean age (F = 0.239 and p = 0.795) were found. In patients with hypertension; dream anxiety, impulsivity, depression and trait anxiety scores were significantly higher than healthy controls. Sleep quality was poorer in patients with hypertension and there was no difference according to chronotype between patients and controls. There were no differences between dipper and non-dipper groups according to dream anxiety, sleep quality, impulsivity, state-trait anxiety, and depressive scores. In conclusion, dream anxiety is a previously unaddressed psychological entity that, in addition to anxiety, depression, impulsivity and poorer sleep quality, appears in hypertensive patients. Longitudinal studies with larger sample sizes would be valuable to elucidate the relationship between dream anxiety and hypertension patterns.