The taking of hypertension drugs is mainly based on the “two peaks and one valley” fluctuation curve determined by the level of blood pressure fluctuations.
The control of blood pressure is mainly to control two “peaks.” Generally, people wake up and wake up to 10 o’clock in the morning, the blood pressure will rise, after rising to a certain peak, it will gradually decrease in the afternoon, and the blood pressure will rise again in the evening (5-6 o’clock), and then the night blood pressure will gradually drop to a trough.
How to take high blood pressure medicine?
① Take antihypertensive drugs once a day, usually at 7 o’clock in the morning. The action time of these drugs is relatively long and can be controlled when the blood pressure reaches the “morning peak”;
② Take the antihypertensive drugs twice a day, and it is advisable to take the drugs twice at 7 am and 4 pm, so that the peak time of the drug action coincides with the two peak periods of natural blood pressure fluctuations.
③ The short-acting antihypertensive drugs taken three times a day should be taken at about 1 o’clock in the morning and 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
Of course, everyone’s situation is different. You can also perform 24-hour blood pressure monitoring before taking the medicine to find out your blood pressure peak. Under the guidance of the 24-hour blood pressure monitoring result, take the medicine 1 to 2 hours before the peak. In this case, the time to control blood pressure is more targeted and individualized.
If your situation does not allow 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, you can also choose 4 time points in a day to measure your blood pressure every 6 hours for 3 consecutive days to know your blood pressure fluctuations. From this, we can infer a medication time.
Do I need to take medicine before going to bed?
It is worth noting that the blood pressure of most people when they fall asleep at night is about 20% lower than that during the day, so blood pressure at night is at a low level. If you take antihypertensive drugs before going to bed, it will easily lead to a significant drop in blood pressure, resulting in insufficient blood supply to the heart, brain, kidneys and other organs, bringing certain risks.
But there are also some people who have increased blood pressure at night, or increased blood pressure before taking the medicine in the morning. These people need your doctor to individually select the type of medication and the time of medication according to your blood pressure increase.
Therefore, whether to take medication before going to bed must follow the doctor’s advice on the basis of blood pressure monitoring.
In addition, there is also a class of antihypertensive drugs called alpha blockers (such as terazosin and other “oxazin” drugs), which may be used by hypertensive patients with prostate hyperplasia. This drug can cause orthostatic hypotension. (It refers to hypotension caused by sudden changes in body position or insufficient blood supply to the brain caused by standing for a long time). Because there are more activities during the day, in order to avoid hypotension caused by changes in body position during activities such as standing and walking, it is better to take medicine before going to bed.
Reminder: Taking antihypertensive drugs before going to bed can easily cause hypotension. It is generally not recommended that you take antihypertensive drugs at night except for individual drugs.
