It doesn’t seem to matter what time of day or night you take blood pressure medication, a new study finds.

The results of a randomised trial of more than 21,000 patients with high blood pressure who were followed for over five years show that protection against heart attack, stroke and vascular death is not affected if the drugs are taken in the morning or evening.

These findings contradict previous research that suggested a large benefit when the medications are taken at night.

For the study, men and women were randomly assigned to take their blood pressure drugs in the morning or evening. The researchers then looked for hospitalisation for heart attack, stroke, or death from cardiovascular disease.