Nocturnal Hypertension: A Predictor of Cardiovascular Events

1 in 4 people with controlled daytime blood pressure may have nocturnal hypertension¹. Most ‘non-dippers’ and ‘reverse dippers’ remain undetected, although they are the cohort of hypertensive patients with the highest risk of developing future cardiovascular events².

Blood pressure readings are mostly taken during the day. However, nocturnal BP readings (those taken while the patient is sleeping at night) are better predictors of the risk of fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events, and target organ damage than daytime blood pressure values ^2,3,4.

Blood pressure normally decreases at night, known as dipping. Most patients with high BP during the day still ‘dip’. Sometimes, however, patients’ BP doesn’t dip or can even rise during the night.  The latter defined as ‘non-dippers’ or ‘reverse dippers’, are the most at-risk cohort for cardiovascular events².

Join the discussion about nocturnal hypertension: the scientific relevance, patients at risk, how to determine nocturnal hypertension, as well as examples of patient cases.