Does nondipping of blood pressure at night reflect a trait of blunted cardiovascular responses to daily activities?
GROUND: Individuals who fail to show a decline in blood pressure (BP) when asleep or at night (labeled nocturnal nondippers) are at elevated risk for hypertension and associated target-organ damage. PURPOSE: We tested whether the well-established changes in BP exhibited in response to daily activities are also blunted in nocturnal nondippers. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 41 women and 56 men, aged 27 to 71 years, residing in Benin, Nigeria, enrolled in a health survey of civil servants. Ambulatory 24-hr BP monitoring was performed with concurrent diary recordings of physical activity level, posture, location, state of mental activity, interpersonal interaction, and mood obtained during the waking hours. RESULTS: Nocturnal nondippers exhibited smaller cardiovascular responses to changes in posture (from lying to sitting or to standing, ps <.02), location (from home to work or to driving/riding in a car, ps <.02), mental activity (from relaxed to active, p =.02), and mood (from feeli
