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Understanding how your blood pressure is changing over time will help you to see what effect changes in your diet, increases in physical activity, weight loss and taking blood pressure medicines are having. Some will have an effect in only a few days, others may take weeks or months.

Home measuring may also show whether or not your readings are particularly high in the doctor's surgery but are consistently lower at home (this is known as the white coat effect - for more, contact the BPA for a factsheet).

When and how often you take readings will depend on your blood pressure - your doctor or nurse may also be able to advise you. It can be useful to monitor your pressure closely at first, then less often but at regular intervals. At times, however, you may also want to monitor your blood pressure more often, such as when you are starting on a new medication or a change in dose.

It is useful to take readings at the same time of day so that you are consistent and are comparing 'like with like'. Some people take their blood pressure readings first thing in the morning and then again before they go to bed.