A study published in the journal Diabetologia found taking blood pressure drugs at night lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes. The researchers aimed to investigate whether hypertension medication taken at night would be effective at reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Researchers utilized a randomized, open-label, blinded endpoint trial of 2,012 patients with hypertension but without diabetes. Patients were randomized to receive hypertension medication, either in the morning upon awakening or at night prior to bed.
A 5.9 year follow-up was conducted, during which 171 patients developed diabetes. Those who took hypertension drugs at night showed lower sleep-time blood pressure, and they also had a lower prevalence of “non-dipping” – when nighttime blood pressure falls by less than 10 percent compared to daytime. Non-dipping occurred in 32 percent of nighttime-treated patients and 52 percent of daytime-treatment patients.
Overall, there was a 57 percent decrease in the risk of type 2 diabetes for nighttime-treatment participants.
The researchers suggest it is just as safe to take blood pressure medication at nighttime as it is during the day. The researchers said, “In hypertensive patients without diabetes, ingestion of the entire daily dose of one or more blood pressure-lowering medications at bedtime compared with ingestion of all such medications upon awakening results in significantly improved sleeping blood pressure control and prevention of new-onset diabetes.”
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