, 28 readings or more scheduled readings); a minimum period of three days (i.e., 12 readings) may be sufficient, ideally in the period immediately before the next appointment with provider Monitoring conducted over consecutive days is ideal; however, readings taken on nonconsecutive days may also provide valid data Analyzing readings For each monitoring period, the average of all readings should be obtained Some guidelines and scientific statements recommend excluding the first day of readings; if the first day of readings is excluded, the minimum and preferred periods of HBPM should be four and eight days, respectively For a video developed for patients by the VA and DoD with instructions on measuring blood pressure at home, please visit https://www.healthquality.va.gov/guidelines/CD/htn/ and click on the Home Blood Pressure Monitoring video. 