Table 1.

Important changes in cardiovascular processes during the morning.

Cardiovascular processes	Activation during morning hours	Negative effect on cardiovascular disease
Sympathetic tone	Increased	Increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and vasoconstriction (15).
Parasympathetic function	Decreased	Increase in heart rate and vasoconstriction (15).
Blood pressure	Increased	There is an associations between an increase in blood pressure and ischemic heart disease and stroke (16).
Heart rate	Increased	High resting heart rate is associated with adverse cardiovascular events (17).
Vascular endothelial function	Decreased	Endothelial dysfunction is associated with atherosclerotic plaque formation (18).
Platelet aggregation	Increased	A higher platelet aggregation increases the change of the formation of blood clots and thereby, adverse cardiovascular events (19).
Thrombolytic activity	Decreased	Lower thrombolytic activity increases the change of the formation of blood clots, and thereby adverse cardiovascular events (20).