How much should your blood pressure fluctuate during a normal day?

Some fluctuation is normal. Especially, if you get dehydrated. Also, it can be different standing and sitting and if you cross your legs. Try to be consistent taking it in the same position, the same time of day. It should hopefully stay in the normal range.

Mine is lower in the morning usually than mid day. I don’t know if that’s normal. Mine is high when I need to increase my thyroid meds. I tell doctors and they don’t care, except my endocrinologist, she cares. The only reason I mention it is if you take medications and your blood pressure is high or low, consider the medication might be affecting it. It’s not the medication that really affects mine, but the thyroid hormone level in my body.

If yours is high I think take it more than once a day. Just my non-medical opinion. Try to figure out a pattern.

A doctor once told me 4 high readings means you probably need it treated. I don’t know if that is some sort of standard? I ignored it and asked for my thyroid to get tested. That’s when I got diagnosed.

Is yours suddenly higher?

Mine is all over the place lately. I checked it this morning twice, same position, two minutes apart and it was 30 points different.

What are the numbers, @Adirondackwannabe?

When I get mine taken, I close my eyes and try to envision a garden (kind of like a little mini-mediation). My blood pressure has always been great and I take no medications at all. A friend of mine told me what I’m doing is kind of like falsifying my readings. I asked the doctor and he told me anything anybody can do to lower their blood pressure (like what I do when mine is taken) is a good thing.

The biggest factor for high blood pressure is carrying extra weight and genetics. There are more variations for normal than most people think, so educate yourself about when to worry and when to NOT worry.

Also, when I get mine taken, I relax my whole body so I’m like a limp rag.

This morning was 140 over 80 the first time, then 110 over 75 two minutes later. And I’m not carrying any extra weight. My BMI is almost underweight.

Most doctors think the bottom number is more important. Neither reading sounds like levels for worry. The other issue is are you experiencing any symptoms or problems you think are from blood pressure fluctuations? Light headed? Headaches? Without a weight problem, I guess you are worrying about pure hypertension issues? There are many ways to treat that without medication.

It can be influenced, like others may have said, by whether you are sitting, standing, laying, ankles crossed, legs hanging down, etc.

Try taking it and doing what I do – totally relaxing. I also try not to think of anything that may cause me worry when mine is taken. No thinking about work, commuting, anything that pisses me off. So I relax, think of a garden, close my eyes, dreamland, voila. See how that works for you.

Also, if you are in pain, your blood pressure will go up. So no taking it when you’re suffering…...

My sister bought a BP testing contraption when her husband was diagnosed with heart problems. For a week, we’d all take a measurement at the same time every day. The results fluctuated fairly dramatically. It may be due to the equipment not working properly.

My guess is that we were all under certain levels of stress due to the fact that Mom was either dying or dead at that point. It may have also been impacted by some of the factors that @JLeslie mentioned.

Your numbers are normal and healthy. Don’t worry about them.

Is my wife home ?

@Zaku Why do you say that? He should continue to watch his pressure in my opinion. 140 over 80 is borderline-ish. If he starts to have that pressure all the time it would definitely be something to watch and maybe address.

@JLeslie I say it from my own experience. I would agree it’s good to measure it regularly (like once a week) just to see, but worrying won’t help. Moreover, what I was told by various doctors for decades was that 120/80 was normal. Below that, and they’d tell you it was low (and possibly to be worried about that…). Even current guidelines have 120/80 as the lower end of the range of PRE-hypertension. The first number in particular can change readily with mood or anxiety or exercise, and in my case with worrying about it. So watch it but don’t worry. And be healthy.

Moreover, the brain has a lot to do with our health, and obsessing and thinking about health conditions can actually cause health problems, as well as make life less enjoyable.

@Zaku I don’t think the OP should be worried. His blood pressure is 140/80 at times, not 120/80. Blood pressure guidelines have changed a little fairly recently. 130/80 is considered prehypertensive (I think that’s the terminology) while 140/90 is still considered high. 140 has never been seen as normal, not since I can remember, but certainly not something to panic about if it’s only observed rarely. The medical establishment over the years has become more concerned about the damages of high blood pressure over time and many doctors show concern at lower numbers than they used to.

Anyway, your “normal and healthy” seemed not quite right to me, so just wondered exactly what you meant.

I was responding to you seemingly responding to me saying “Don’t worry about [your numbers].”

He wrote it read 110/75 two minutes after it read 140/80. If those were my numbers, I would not be worrying about it at all (though I’d still check it occasionally), also because I know worrying doesn’t help, and does raise my numbers.

I’ve had numbers in pre-hyper or hyper 1 for decades, when I go to doctors at least, or when I’m worried about it. The worst actual effect I’ve had from this so far is stress, annoying concern from others, and the side effects of the medication they tried on me. I always had the impression 120/80 was the goal to have it down to to have no worry. Mine varies a lot, and the varying was what the OP was asking about worrying about.

What does seem to help me, for me at least, based on my own watching my own numbers, is staying relatively fit and healthy.

Blood pressure? Sounds like something Denzel applied to Snoop Dog in Training Day.