TAKE BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICATION AT NIGHT

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who take a blood pressure medication as part of their morning routine, you may want to rethink that. A new study has shown that taking your medication at night instead might save your life.

The study was simple yet thorough: 19,084 Caucasian adults who had been prescribed one or more of five common blood pressure medications were randomly assigned to take them either immediately upon awakening or right before turning off the lights to go to bed. After more than six years, those who took their medicine at night had slashed their risk of dying from heart or blood vessel problems by 66 percent more than the morning pill poppers did. Plus, their risk of stroke plummeted by 49 percent more; of heart attack, by 44 percent more; and of heart failure, by 42 percent more.

It’s not entirely clear why taking the medications at night affects the results so dramatically, though the researchers had previously reported that “average systolic blood pressure when a person is asleep is the most significant and independent indication of cardiovascular disease risk, regardless of blood pressure measurements taken while awake or when visiting a doctor.”

While more research is needed to confirm whether the effects hold true with other ethnic groups, there’s little downside—and a potentially huge upside— to taking medications at bedtime.