If your blood pressure consistently reads below 90/60 mmHg and you’re experiencing dizziness, fatigue, or lightheadedness, there are several effective ways to bring it up. The right approach depends on whether you need a quick fix in the moment or a longer-term strategy to keep your pressure from dropping throughout the day.
Quick Physical Techniques for an Immediate Boost
When you feel dizzy or lightheaded from a sudden blood pressure drop, specific body movements can push your pressure up within seconds. These work by squeezing blood out of your muscles and back toward your heart and brain. The American Heart Association recommends several of these counterpressure maneuvers:
- Cross your legs and squeeze. While standing or lying down, cross your legs and tense your leg, abdominal, and buttock muscles simultaneously. This compresses the large veins in your lower body and forces blood upward.
- Drop into a squat. Lowering into a squatting position pools less blood in your legs and raises pressure quickly. Tense your abdomen and legs while holding the squat, then stand slowly once the dizziness passes.
- Grip and pull. Lock your fingers together in front of your chest and pull your arms in opposite directions with maximum force. This isometric tension raises blood pressure within a few heartbeats.
- Clench your fist. Make the tightest fist you can, with or without something in your hand, and hold it. Even this small contraction can produce a measurable increase.
These aren’t long-term solutions, but they can prevent fainting or help you get through a dizzy spell safely. If you tend to feel lightheaded when standing up from bed or a chair, crossing your legs and tensing before you rise gives your circulatory system a head start.
Increase Your Salt and Fluid Intake
Salt is one of the most straightforward tools for raising blood pressure because sodium pulls water into your bloodstream, increasing blood volume. For people with orthostatic hypotension (the kind that causes dizziness when standing), medical guidelines recommend significantly more salt than the general population typically eats. The American Society of Hypertension suggests 6,000 to 10,000 mg of salt per day for these patients, which translates to roughly 2,400 to 4,000 mg of sodium. Some specialists recommend even higher amounts, up to 8,000 mg of sodium daily.
For context, the average American eats about 3,400 mg of sodium per day, so raising your intake meaningfully might require adding salt to meals, eating saltier foods like broth, pickles, or olives, or using salt tablets. One study found that adding about 2,400 mg of supplemental sodium per day for two months improved both blood pressure control and blood flow to the brain in people who were prone to fainting.
Fluid intake matters just as much. Drinking more water expands your blood volume directly. A practical starting point is drinking 12 to 16 ounces of water before meals, which can help prevent the blood pressure drops that commonly happen after eating. Spread your water intake throughout the day rather than drinking large amounts all at once.
Adjust How and When You Eat
Your blood pressure naturally dips after meals because your body diverts blood to your digestive system. Large meals, especially carbohydrate-heavy ones, cause the biggest drops. This is called postprandial hypotension, and it’s particularly common in older adults.
Switching from three large meals to six smaller ones throughout the day reduces the amount of blood your gut demands at any one time. Keeping carbohydrates lower at each meal also helps, since carbs trigger a stronger digestive blood flow response than protein or fat. Drinking a caffeinated beverage before breakfast or lunch can provide an additional buffer, as caffeine temporarily constricts blood vessels and raises pressure.
Wear Compression Garments
Compression stockings and abdominal binders work by physically preventing blood from pooling in your legs and abdomen. When you stand, gravity pulls a significant volume of blood downward. Compression pushes it back toward your heart, keeping your blood pressure higher where it counts.
For blood pressure purposes, thigh-high stockings rated at 23 to 32 mmHg of pressure are the standard recommendation. Waist-high versions or abdominal compression bands can be even more effective because the abdomen holds a large reservoir of blood. Knee-high stockings, while more comfortable, are less effective for preventing pressure drops. The garments work best when you put them on before getting out of bed in the morning, since that’s when pooling hasn’t started yet.
Elevate the Head of Your Bed
Sleeping with the head of your bed raised by about 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) can improve morning blood pressure over time. This slight angle reduces the amount of fluid your kidneys flush out overnight, so you wake up with more blood volume. It also keeps a small amount of blood pooled in your legs during sleep, which trains your body to better tolerate the shift in blood distribution when you stand.
One approach that has shown results is gradually increasing the elevation over several weeks. In one documented case, a patient who worked up to a 38 cm (about 15 inch) elevation at an 11-degree tilt reported significantly less morning dizziness and showed only a minimal blood pressure drop on standing after three months. You can achieve this by placing blocks or risers under the legs at the head of the bed, though foam wedge pillows can work as a starting point. Raising the whole head of the bed frame is more effective than just stacking pillows, which only elevate your upper body and can bend your waist uncomfortably.
Medications That Raise Blood Pressure
When lifestyle changes aren’t enough, two prescription medications are commonly used. The first works by helping your body retain more sodium and water, expanding your blood volume the same way dietary salt does, but more powerfully. It also enhances the effect of your body’s natural blood vessel-tightening signals. The second works more directly by constricting your blood vessels, physically narrowing them to increase pressure. Your doctor would choose between these based on your specific pattern of symptoms, other health conditions, and how your blood pressure behaves throughout the day.
These medications are typically reserved for people whose low blood pressure significantly affects their daily life, since both come with trade-offs. The volume-expanding option, for example, has been associated with higher hospitalization rates compared to the vessel-constricting option, likely because holding onto extra fluid can stress the heart in some patients.
Habits That Help Day to Day
Beyond the strategies above, a few daily habits can make a noticeable difference. Standing up slowly, especially first thing in the morning, gives your cardiovascular system time to adjust. Sitting on the edge of the bed for 30 seconds before standing is a simple way to reduce morning lightheadedness. Avoiding prolonged standing in one position helps too, since even healthy people experience blood pooling in the legs after standing still for several minutes. Shifting your weight, rising onto your toes, or tensing your calves keeps blood moving.
Alcohol tends to lower blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels and promoting dehydration, so limiting intake can prevent additional drops. Hot environments, including hot showers and baths, also dilate blood vessels and lower pressure. Keeping showers warm rather than hot, and sitting on a shower chair if you tend to get dizzy, are practical adjustments that reduce risk. Regular moderate exercise, particularly lower-body strengthening, improves the muscle pump that pushes blood back to your heart and can raise resting blood pressure over time in people who run low.