Nocturnal dipping is preserved in children with sleep disordered breathing regardless of its severity

Objective Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in adults has been associated with a loss of nocturnal dipping in blood pressure (BP) and heart rate, however, there have been limited studies in children. We measured BP non‐invasively and continuously overnight in 105 children aged 7–12 with a range of severities of SDB and 36 non‐snoring controls to examine nocturnal dipping profiles. Study Design Children with SDB were divided into three severity groups according to their obstructive apnea hypopnea index. Nocturnal dipping profiles across sleep stages were described both as a proportion of children exhibiting a ≥10% fall in systolic arterial pressure (SAP) and heart rate (HR) from wake to sleep and according to SAP sleep/SAP wake ratio as extreme dippers (ratio ≤ 0.8), dippers (ratio