How to Check Your Blood Pressure at Home Correctly

Home blood pressure readings are more useful than the one we take in the office, because a single measurement in an unfamiliar room after a rushed drive is not your real blood pressure. But home readings only help if the technique is right.

Sit quietly for five minutes first. Feet flat on the floor, back supported, arm resting at heart level on a table. Not talking, not scrolling your phone. The cuff goes on bare skin, not over a sleeve.

Avoid caffeine, exercise, and smoking for thirty minutes beforehand, and empty your bladder — a full bladder can raise readings noticeably.

Take two readings a minute apart and record both. Do this in the morning before medication and again in the evening, for about a week before your appointment. Bring the log, or the device itself.

Use an upper-arm cuff, not a wrist model. Wrist devices are convenient and consistently less accurate.

One high reading is not a diagnosis, and one normal reading is not reassurance. Patterns are what we treat.