While people with high blood pressure may consider trying an alkaline diet that is high in fruits and vegetables to help with the issue, others who use monitors to measure their levels while they slumber may be losing sleep over it.

Scientists are suggesting that patients who are losing sleep over their blood pressure monitors may be affecting the test results, according to a study found in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The researchers found that while blood pressure levels drop during sleep, patients who are kept awake by their monitors increase their activity and movement, which keeps levels higher.

Results indicated that on the nights patients used their blood pressure monitors, they spent an average of 90 minutes less in bed.

“Nighttime blood pressure is lower not because of the time of the day, but because people are asleep,” said Rajiv Agarwal, M.D. “The ambulatory monitoring technique can disturb sleep, and therefore raise the nighttime blood pressure as an artifact.”

Researchers believe that this study should be taken into consideration when physicians monitor their patients’ levels. As a result of sleeping less due to their monitor, their blood pressure may remain high.