What Time Should I Measure Height?

You tend to be taller in the morning due to your spine being lengthened through sleep. This is because depending on your sleeping position, the vertebrate of the spine will be more spaced horizontally. As you go about your day, your vertical standing position stacks the vertebrae and due to gravity is compressed. Hence your height stabilizes and shortens later in the day.

It is perfectly fine to measure your height in the morning, but I prefer to measure the height that we spend the majority of the time in. So record your day height as the baseline.

How Often Should I Measure Height?

There is no standard frequency in measuring your height. If you are still growing, I recommend a session after each few weeks.

So what is a height measuring session? Measure your height at the same time for three consecutive days. Our height differs slightly each day due to spine compression and using the average of these three measurements is a better estimation of our true height.

The Method For Measuring Height

Go bare foot and remove whatever that is on top of your head that could increase your height (except hair).

Stand with your feet together and your back against the wall. Its better if you stand near a door hinge or a straight edge.

Your body should be touching the wall and this includes your feet, bottom, shoulders as well as the back of your head. To make sure your body is as straight as possible, look straight ahead keeping the top of head level.

Its better to have someone help you but if you are alone, take a book (a hard cover one so it don’t bend) or box in one hand and using the other hand, hold a pencil. Once you are in a good position, place the book/box against the wall and lower it down on your head. Make sure the book is horizontal by practicing in front of the mirror (If you have someone to help you, they can make sure it is horizontal. I got someone to do this for me). An inaccurate measurement can happen with a tilt or slide.

Using the pencil, mark on the wall at the bottom of the book/box. Since you are moving with raised shoulders, it would not be easy to mark while in this position. So, while keeping your book/box fixed to the wall, try sliding out. Now mark it.

To figure out your height, use a measuring tape, starting at the ground and up to the mark. Try to keep the tape straight. That is why standing next to the corner or door hinge is useful as they can be used for guiding the tape vertical.

Tip – Label the mark with the height. Next time you decide to measure yourself, instead of using the measuring tape, you can use a short ruler to measure the distance from the labeled mark to the new mark. This means you won’t have to do the tape alignment again.