What could be worse than a morning headache to start your day with? Headaches are painful, annoying, and often come as bad surprises. It is quite irritating to pull yourself out of your bed with your head pounding bad. Your morning headache could be happening due to a few reasons you are ignorant of, and with a few tips, you could get rid of them as well.
Not Enough Sleep
The human body needs a minimum of 6 hours and a maximum of 8 hours of sleep. When you get less sleep, the hormones start behaving abnormally and results in an increase in heart rate, stress, and blood pressure. All these problems together contribute to a headache.
You can counter this headache with a medicine like ibuprofen or naproxen as they help in reducing the inflammation and thereby, eases the pain.
Too Much Sleep
If not getting enough sleep triggers a headache, spending too much time under the covers also, does no good at all. If you are sleeping for more than 9 hours at a stretch, there is a decrease in the secretion of the hormone serotonin in the brain. This reduces the blood flow to the brain resulting in a headache.
How can you avoid it? Well, that is simple. Sleep not more than 9 hours at a stretch, and you will wake up fresh and sound the next morning.
High Blood Pressure
Your morning headache could be a result of high blood pressure. It is important to check our blood pressure regularly and 140/90 mm mercury (Hg) or above is generally defined as high blood pressure. Most of us who have high blood pressure don’t know that the extra pressure could lead to headaches.
It is important to get your pressure checked by your doctor and make necessary changes in your diet and lifestyle. This will help you bring your blood pressure to normal and cure your headaches as well.
Excess Alcohol Consumption The Previous Night
Consumption of alcohol is a bad habit in itself. Over-consumption of alcohol can lead to a significant headache the next morning, which is commonly known as hangover. However, it is not necessary that only the consumption of too much alcohol can cause a headache. A few drinks can also make a person dehydrated and reduce the blood flow into the brain, resulting in a headache. Drinking alcohol also makes it hard to get a good night’s sleep.
To prevent hangovers, limit your alcohol consumption or keep yourself hydrated even if you consume alcohol.
Snoring And Sleep Apnea
Many people snore while they sleep. Those who snore a lot could be a sign of sleep apnea, which is a condition that causes people to choke, gasp for air, and also stop breathing temporarily in sleep. These episodes of choking can result in the flow of less oxygen in the brain. Less oxygen can cause blood vessels in the brain to expand and increase blood flow and blood pressure in the brain, resulting in a headache.
It is important to check with a physician if you have sleep apnea and get necessary changes done in your lifestyle.
A Sign Of Depression
If a person suffers from depression, headaches can happen at any time of the day. However, it is more likely that the person will get a headache in the morning due to low secretion of the serotonin hormone and a messed-up sleep schedule. Depression messes with your brain and causes you to snooze too much or too little while you are sleeping, which often results in a headache. This pain in the head can also cause terrible mood swings.
The best way to deal with depression is to address the root cause of the problem, take sessions and therapies with your doctor, and take prescribed antidepressants regularly. This will bring a person out of depression and stop those morning headaches as well.
It is often easy to fix your morning headaches. However, if you are getting headaches regularly, be it in the morning or at any other time of the day since a long period now, it could be a serious health problem like a brain tumor or aneurysm. In such cases, an MRI or EEG is recommended. Sometimes, headaches could be the result of loss of power in eyesight as well. Whatever the cause of our headache is, it is always important for us to do a routine checkup of our health.
