What causes your blood pressure to change over night?
I am just curious what can cause my blood pressure to change over night? It went from being very low to normal. Thanks
Tagged with: blood pressure
Filed under: blood pressure causes
There are significant variations in everyone’s blood pressure all the time, this is quite normal and can be seen on almost every 24 hour BP monitor. BP is lowest at about 4am rises gradually as the morning wears on, peaking between 11 am and about 5pm, after this it falls gradually. This is called a diurnal variation and accommodates the normal requirements of man the animal, though it does not always suit man the current entity. The majority of our bodily functions follow a similar pattern. There are also minute to minute variations depending on posture, circumstances and activity.
Patients with blood pressure problems like hypertension can lose this variation and if fact the loss of the nocturnal dip signifies a worsening of the problem.
In patients with blood pressure problems
Blood pressure is continually changing depending on activity, temperature, diet, emotional state, posture, physical state, and medication use.
It’s because the blood-flow demands of all the the organs of your body are constantly changing, and blood-flow (supply) determines how your heart and arterial system work, responding to these changing needs.
During sleep, the organs are only ‘ticking over’ and need minimum cardiac output. You get a ‘kick-start’ first thing in the morning and then they settle down. After lunch they start rising again, peaking with stress, activity, and meals, usually late afternoon, early evening… then they gradually lower again until you go to bed and sleep.
BP’s follow stress quite faithfully, and are never constant while you’re active.