It is now accepted medical common sense that hypertensive patients take antihypertensive drugs. But many patients, despite taking antihypertensive drugs, are not quite sure of the specific time to take them, some take them in the morning, some in the afternoon, and some prefer to take them before bedtime. We talk to you about it. The blood pressure of each of us is fluctuating during the day, generally at 6-10 a.m. and 16-20 p.m. Higher, while the early morning blood pressure may be the lowest value of the day. For a young person with hypertension, the curve is generally present, although his blood pressure is elevated. For older hypertensive patients, this curve often disappears because of their neuromodulation or vascular sclerosis and other problems. Therefore, we generally recommend that hypertensive patients should have a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure check to understand the changes in your blood pressure curve. Antihypertensive drugs are divided into short-acting, medium-acting and long-acting. For short-acting drugs, you generally need to take them at least three times a day, medium-acting drugs generally twice a day, and long-acting drugs only once a day. For most patients with hypertension, we recommend that they take long-acting drugs, which can ensure a smooth blood concentration and keep their blood pressure stable. There is also better compliance, and patients are less likely to miss doses. For short-acting antihypertensive drugs, we recommend taking them in the morning and at noon, before and after meals, which can effectively have a suppressive effect on the physiological blood pressure rise in the morning and afternoon. Since many patients have a variable dinner time from 17:00 to 21:00, we recommend not necessarily taking them at meal times. We recommend that the evening dose be taken from about 17.00 to 18.00 hours. We do not recommend taking it before bedtime because one’s own blood pressure may be low after sleep, and taking the drug before bedtime may lead to a transient low blood pressure during the night, which has an increased risk of cerebrovascular infarction for elderly patients. Some diuretic antihypertensive drugs are also recommended to be taken in the morning, which will reduce the phenomenon of increased nocturia and ensure patients’ sleep. For medium-acting antihypertensive drugs, they are taken twice a day. The morning medication can be taken before breakfast, around 7:00 am. This will allow it to take effect as soon as possible and suppress the morning blood pressure rise, while the afternoon dose should be taken around 14:00, two hours after lunch, so that the afternoon blood pressure rise can be controlled. We also do not recommend taking medium-acting antihypertensive medications too late in the evening, which can also affect intra-night blood pressure. Long-acting medications are by far the most used medications, and we strongly recommend that most people with hypertension take long-acting medications to control their blood pressure. First of all, it should be noted that some long-acting antihypertensive drugs cannot be chewed or chopped, as these drugs often have an outer membrane or special release technology. For most “slow release” long-acting antihypertensive drugs, we recommend taking them in the morning. On the one hand, the compliance of taking the medication in the morning is the best, and people are generally not easy to forget, and if you forget, you can take the medication before noon. More importantly, “extended-release” drugs are also high in dosage at the initial stage, and the dosage decreases after 24 hours. This way, taking the drug in the morning can ensure a relatively more ideal blood concentration during the day and lower blood pressure during the day. Some long-acting drugs with “controlled release” technology can be taken both in the morning and at night because of their controlled release technology, which releases the drug slowly and steadily into the body. However, the requirement for these drugs is that they should be taken regularly every day, and the time difference between them should preferably not exceed one hour. These are the principles for taking antihypertensive drugs in most cases. Some patients with special types of hypertension, such as nocturnal hypertension, need to take their medication on time under the advice of their doctors. Taking antihypertensive medication and having good blood pressure control are two different things. Only by taking medication on a regular basis and keeping blood pressure under control and calm can we effectively reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.