Why is systolic pressure lower when lying down

There are some instances where you may have your blood pressure taken lying down. If you have orthostatic hypotension, your blood pressure may be taken in two different positions — sitting and standing. This can help your doctor monitor how your blood pressure changes when you move from a sitting to a standing position. If you need to measure your blood pressure at home , the following tips may be helpful in getting accurate readings:.

Your treatment plan may need to be adjusted. There are specific lifestyle habits that may help reduce your risk for hypertension. Your doctor may recommend some of these changes before prescribing medication. Your body position can impact your blood pressure reading.

According to older research, blood pressure may be higher while lying down. But more recent studies have found that blood pressure may be lower while lying down versus sitting. However, in some cases you may have your blood pressure taken while lying down or while standing. Taking blood pressure at home is a valuable tool for early diagnosis or monitoring the effectiveness of your treatment.

Talk with your doctor if you have questions about home blood pressure monitoring or if you have consistently high readings. Lifestyle changes can significantly reduce high blood pressure and even lower your risk of hypertension in the future. Learn how garlic and dark…. Several factors can affect blood pressure readings, including eating, not eating, and diet. Learn what can affect them and how to take an accurate…. Blood pressure can be different in each arm.

While a slight difference can be fine, a greater difference may be a sign of a condition that needs…. Blood pressure is in part regulated by baroreceptors in the aortic arch, carotid arteries and carotid sinus.

By influencing heart rate and peripheral vascular resistance via the autonomic nervous system , they help to compensate for transient changes. Age-related changes in these mechanisms can precipitate postural hypotension. The baroreflex-mediated heart rate response to both hypotensive and hypertensive stimuli can become impaired.

In addition, blood pressure regulation can be affected by age and disease-related cardiovascular changes such as atherosclerosis. Arterioles are less able to constrict in response to rapid changes in position. Older people are consequently more susceptible to postural hypotension. Although postural hypotension can occur in healthy elderly people, it is more common in those with extra risk factors, particularly prolonged bedrest and an age of over A possible explanation for the difference between these two studies could be the fact that oscillometric instruments were used in the present study, whereas standard mercury sphygmomanometers were used in the study of Ljungvall et al.

In conclusion, the present study shows that the assumption that blood pressure in sitting and supine position can be considered similar is incorrect even when the arm of the patient is placed at the correct right atrium level in both positions, as officially recommended. Supporting the arm of the patient on the arm support of a common chair in the sitting position could partially correct and potentially reverse the differences between sitting and supine positions.

In consequence, such practice is incorrect and should be discouraged. Guyton A. Textbook of Medical Physiology.

WB Saunders: Philadelphia. Google Scholar. Hypertension ; 22 : — Ramsay L et al. Guidelines for the management of hypertension: report of the third working party of the British Hypertension Society. J Hum Hypertens ; 13 : — The influence of a heart level pillow on the result of blood pressure measurement. J Hum Hypertens ; 3 : — ABC of hypertension. The patient. BMJ Sloan PJ et al. Standardised methods for comparison of sphygmomanometers. J Hypertens ; 2 : — Terent A, Breig-Asberg E.

Epidemiological perspective of body position and arm level in blood pressure measurement. Blood Press ; 3 : — Does it matter whether blood pressure measurements are taken with patients sitting or supine? J Hypertens ; 16 : — Office blood pressures in supine, sitting and standing positions: correlation with ambulatory blood pressures. Int J Cardiol ; 28 : — J Hypertens ; 18 : — Cavelaars M et al.

Assessment of body position to quantify its effect on nocturnal blood pressure under ambulatory conditions. Parati G. Blood pressure reduction at night: sleep and beyond. Newton KM. Comparison of aortic and brachial cuff pressure in flat supine and lateral recumbent positions.

Heart Lung ; 10 : — The heart has two motions — contracting and relaxing, so blood pressure is, therefore, recorded as two numbers over each other. Systolic is the actual beat of the heart and diastolic is when the heart relaxes. Systolic pressure is listed over diastolic, such as over 80, which is normal blood pressure. All sorts of conditions can have an impact on your blood pressure reading. Disease, stress, weight, and even posture can impact your blood pressure level.

Blood pressure lying down verses standing has the same variations as lying down vs. Moving from a standing to a supine lying down position could result in different readings.

Many wonder why positioning makes such a difference in blood pressure readings. Our heart is a pump, and it takes less work to pump blood to our brain when we are lying down.

This is because our head is about the same level as our heart. However, when we are up, our head is a lot higher than our heart.