Paul Muntner, Ph.D., chair of the writing group for the updated American Heart Association scientific statement on blood pressure measurement in humans, published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.

copyright American Heart Association

"So when I measure my blood pressure at home, the first thing I do is I make sure I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt so I can put the blood pressure cuff on my bare upper arm (above the bend). After I put the cuff on, I sit in a chair that has a back on it so my back is supported, feet flat on the floor (uncrossed) and I rest my arm on a table, and I sit quietly for five minutes. I don't talk. I don't look at my cellphone. I just rest quietly. After five minutes, I push the button on the machine to measure my blood pressure. After my blood pressure is measured, I once again wait quietly for one minute and measure my blood pressure a second time. Now I know many people like using wrist monitors or a blood pressure monitor with a cuff on their wrist. For those people, they can follow the exact same steps. The one difference is with the cuff on the wrist, they need to make sure that their wrist is at their heart level. So what I do when I measure my blood pressure with the wrist monitor is I rest my elbow on a table and I have my wrist at my heart level, just like this. And I will sit quietly and then after five minutes, I'll push the button to measure my blood pressure on the machine and then I'll rest for a minute and then I'll do it one more time with my wrist once again at my heart level. I'll have my blood pressure measured again. It's important that your wrist is at your heart level because if your wrist is hanging by your side, your arm is down, your blood pressure is gonna be too high. If you raise your arm above your head, your blood pressure's gonna be too low."