The American lifestyle is in question again. In America workers are known to put in an excessive amount of time in hour worked in a typical work week. Although the Japanese have been known to die during long work hours coupled with hard work known as, “sudden death from overwork” Americans are surpassing the number of hours worked compared to the Japanese.

A recent study has been released by psychologists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) highlighting the problems of hard work when you are already tired. The dangerous result of working harder when you have already worked hard or not had enough is sleep is a dramatic rise in blood pressure. High blood pressure leads to increased stress, hypertension and heart disease.

A UAB psychologist, Rex Wright, Ph.D. led the study and released the findings to be published in the July issue of International Journal of Psychophysiology. You can read the UAB press release here at the University’s website. Even though the study found that exhausted individuals’ cardiovascular systems had to work harder when work tasks were completed, there is a twist that eliminates some tired individuals from harm.

The twist happens when the person that is exhausted believes they can accomplish the task at hand or is strongly focused on determined to complete the task. If an individual is so tired that they don’t believe they can complete the task blood pressure isn’t effected. This variable was shown in the study when subjects reporting very high fatigue had low blood pressure in all instances of the study.

While the blood pressure twist shows a difference when individuals are severely tired, it also shows up when the task at hand is perceived to be almost impossible. In the study individuals that were presented with a task that was incredibly difficult to complete didn’t have higher blood pressure because they, “viewed success there as impossible or too difficult to be worth the effort,” Wright said.

This should raise a red flag to all those workers that continue to put in that extra few hours when they’re already exhausted and wore out from the work week. If putting in extra hours every week is increasing the chance of cardiovascular harm and raising the chance of a heart attack, stroke or kidney damage is it worth it? With the economy teetering, credit crunch and unemployment rising many workers are probably determined to get in as many hours as possible at work. The end result could very well be an increased rate of heart disease in America after this new recession.

To reduce your blood pressure doctors state the one of the best ways to start is to first lose weight. More than half of Americans are overweight and doctors say this is the biggest factor in high blood pressure. Other tips are to moderate alcohol, limit salt and exercise. If you already have extremely high blood pressure you should be on blood pressure medications to help you handle the ups and downs of you blood pressure. Just remember that if you’re extremely exhausted and you’re putting in extra hours or working extra hard you are playing with fire or at least your blood pressure and future health.