When blood pressure is monitored over 24 hours, individuals can be divided into three groups according to their blood pressure pattern:• ‘dippers’, for whom the night-time blood pressure is lower than the day-time blood pressure (which is the case for healthy young people),• ‘non-dippers’, for whom night-time and day-time blood pressure values are not very different, and• ‘reverse dippers’, for whom, contrary to expectations, the night-time blood pressure is higher than the day-time blood pressure, when they are up and active. Day-time blood pressure measurements are not enough: it is vitally important to identify who is a reverse dipper through 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.' However, day-time blood pressure measurements are not capable of detecting high blood pressure in these highest-risk patients whose blood pressure rises at night. This is particularly important for those above the age of 60, as the higher night-time blood pressure increases with age and blood pressure checks in the surgery and patient-self monitoring at home is not capable of picking up high night-time blood pressure.' • This study used systolic blood pressure only to compute the 24-hour blood pressure patterns of the included participants, conforming to common practice in this field.