At the beginning, measure your blood pressure at least twice daily. Take it first in the morning before eating or taking any medications. Take it again in the evening. Each time you measure, take two or three readings to make sure your results are the same.
After the first week
Once you have a record of your blood pressure over a week, you can take readings less often – once every one to two weeks perhaps. Your doctor or nurse can talk to you about this, there's no need to measure it too often.
Don't check your blood pressure too often.
Some people find that they become worried or stressed about small changes in their readings if they take them too often. Worrying can also raise your blood pressure in the short term, making your reading higher than it should be.
Use a blood pressure log [PDF – 284 KB] to record your blood pressure measurements. Take your blood pressure at the same time every day. Take at least two readings, 1 or 2 minutes apart.
Solely relying on your first blood pressure reading may lead to an inaccurate diagnosis because it's usually higher than the second reading. Your doctor or nurse should take more than one reading and compare the results for better accuracy.
Everyone's blood pressure rises and falls many times during the course of a single day, sometimes even within minutes.
Fluctuating blood pressure can be normal, as blood pressure varies somewhat throughout the day. Stress, exercise, and sleep can all make a difference. But if your blood pressure often changes significantly from one healthcare visit to another, there may a problem.
Even when at rest, blood pressure fluctuates constantly. As a result, doctors and hypertension society advise taking at least two readings each time and averaging the results. A series of measurements provides far more reliable information about blood pressure than a single measurement.
When it comes to blood pressure, one reading may not be enough. Forty-six percent of Americans have high blood pressure, but studies show when it's taken twice at your doctor's office - with at least one minute in between - the second reading is typically lower and a more accurate measurement.
“It's normal, of course, for a person's blood pressure to rise and fall from minute to minute with changes in posture, exercise, stress, or sleep,” says Mercado. “As a result, health care professionals consider an average reading more important than that at any one time.”
In the American Heart Association BP measurement guideline [12], the following statement was described without any citation: 'three readings should be taken in succession, separated by at least 1 min. The first is typically the highest, and the average should be used as the blood pressure reading.
It is not until you pump up and release the blood pressure cuff 3 to 5 times that you will get an accurate reading. The difference in the first reading to the last could increased by 10 points or more. Try It Yourself: If you have an automatic blood pressure cuff, take your blood pressure 5 times in a row.
Anxiety doesn't cause long-term high blood pressure (hypertension). But episodes of anxiety can cause dramatic, temporary spikes in blood pressure.
A cuff that is too snug or too loose on the mid-upper arm can lead to greatly exaggerated blood pressure measurements, results of a community-based study show.
Usually, blood pressure starts to rise a few hours before a person wakes up. It continues to rise during the day, peaking in midday. Blood pressure typically drops in the late afternoon and evening. Blood pressure is usually lower at night while sleeping.
Blood pressure does not stay the same all the time. It changes to meet your body's needs and it is normal for your blood pressure to go up and down throughout the day. It is affected by various factors, including body position, breathing, emotional state, exercise and sleep.
But home blood pressure monitors aren't always as accurate as they should be. "Home blood pressure monitors may be inaccurate in 5% to 15% of patients, depending on the threshold for accuracy used," according to Dr. Swapnil Hiremath, a kidney specialist at Ottawa Hospital in Canada.
Dozens of at home blood pressure machines were tested in the study. According to the results, the participants' home blood pressure monitor readings were off by around 5 mmHg a shocking 70% of the time.
There are instances in which the BP-measurement accuracy is affected by patients' habits or behaviors. Acute meal ingestion, caffeine or nicotine use can all affect BP readings, leading to errors in measurement accuracy.
Over the years, research has found that both numbers are equally important in monitoring heart health.
Systolic pressure (the first number in a blood pressure reading) measures the force with which the heart pumps blood into the arteries. Diastolic pressure (the second, lower number) reflects the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats.
Unfortunately, high blood pressure can happen without feeling any abnormal symptoms. Moderate or severe headaches, anxiety, shortness of breath, nosebleeds, palpitations, or feeling of pulsations in the neck are some signs of high blood pressure.
The less you sleep, the higher your blood pressure may go. People who sleep six hours or less may have steeper increases in blood pressure. If you already have high blood pressure, not sleeping well may make your blood pressure worse.
Doctors often ask patients to breathe deeply before getting their blood pressure taken, for example, and mindful people may take a deep breath before responding to an insult.