ambulatory blood pressure ambulatory blood pressure ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (abpm) measures blood pressure at regular intervals. it is believed to be able to reduce the white coat hypertension effect in which a patient's blood pressure is elevated during the examination process due to nervousness and anxiety caused by being in a clinical setting. abpm can also detect the reverse condition, masked hypertension, where the patient has normal blood pressure during the examination but uncontrolled blood pressure at home. out-of-office measurements are highly recommended as an adjunct to office measurements by almost all hypertension organizations. ambulatory blood pressure monitoringmeshd018660 blood pressure variability 24-hour, non-invasive ambulatory blood pressure (bp) monitoring allows estimates of cardiac risk factors including excessive bp variability or patterns of circadian variability known to increase risks of a cardiovascular event. nocturnal hypertension ambulatory blood pressure monitoring allows blood pressure to be intermittently monitored during sleep and is useful to determine whether the patient is a "dipper" or "non-dipper"—that is to say, whether or not blood pressure falls at night compared to daytime values. a night time fall is normal and desirable. it correlates with relationship depth but other factors such as sleep quality, age, hypertensive status, marital status, and social network support. absence of a night time dip is associated with poorer health outcomes, including increased mortality in one recent study. in addition, nocturnal hypertension is associated with end organ damage and is a much better indicator than the daytime blood pressure reading. target organ damage