My husband has high blood pressure and takes medication for it. Lately he has woken up in the middle of the night feeling odd and when he takes his blood pressure is up to 180/190. Should he check if he has sleep apnea and why doesnt his medication keep the hypertension low.
Hello! Welcome and thank you for asking on Chat Doctor! You should know that sleep apnea can cause difficulty breathing during the night with blood pressure spikes. Your husbands blood pressure values are really high, and some tests need to be done to investigate for the possible underlying causes: - a chest X-ray study- a resting ECG-thyroid hormone levels for thyroid dysfunction- complete blood count for anemia-blood electrolytes for electrolyte imbalance-blood gas analysis-fasting glucose for diabetes-kidney and liver function tests. If these tests result normal, a multi latency sleep test should be done to exclude possible sleep apnea. But, if no other underlying cause is found, I would recommend discussing with your doctor on the possibility of making some changes on his blood pressure therapy (raise the doses or add a new antihypertensive Chat Doctor.  Hope to have been helpful! Wishing all the best,