What Causes A Headache?
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Are you waking up with a headache every morning, even though you’ve had a good sleep? Check out the list of what causes daily headaches. The more common headaches are due to sleep apnoea and depression-related lack of nights of sleep and the less common ones are food and drug allergies.
Types Of Headaches:
Primary headache disorders are one the types of headaches. These are recurrent headaches that the doctors have ruled out as a medical condition. These can be anything from:
- Cluster headaches (on one side)
- Tension headaches (ache and/or tightness on the forehead or back of head and neck)
- A migraine (throbbing pain). There is daily yoga for migraine practices to get relief from a migraine.
Here are some reasons why daily headaches could be happening and what you possibly can do to change the daily headache condition.
Daily Headache Causes:
The daily headaches causes are numerous and can be lifestyle-related, such as relating to stress, caffeine and alcohol consumption, lack of sleep, and in some cases, extreme temperatures, in either summer or winter. You may get the worst headaches during the hot, humid months and you may also get them more frequently.
1. How Electronics Affect Sleep:
This is how electronics affect sleep: The body’s production of natural painkillers, like endorphins and enkephalins, is lowest between 4 am and 8 am. Adrenalin is released in larger quantities during the early morning hours. Since adrenalin affects blood pressure and the regulation of dilation or contraction of the blood vessels, it may play a role in migraine attacks.
Lifestyle Stressful activities right before bed, and going to bed with gadgets like a tablet or your phone can affect your sleep. This can be the primary reason for what causes daily headaches. To avoid stress you can go for pranayama for stress and yoga for stress relief.
The solution is, to avoid gadgets and any stressful activity. Restrict alcohol and skip caffeine in the evening. Develop healthy sleep practices, such as listening to soothing music and doing a few yoga asanas to help you relax.
2. Blood Sugar And Headaches:
The body’s blood sugar and headaches are connected.
Your body stays without food for over 8 hours when you sleep. This leads to a fall in the blood sugar levels in the body. Among people living with diabetes, this fall in blood sugar level can lead to a hypoglycaemic headache either at night or upon waking up.
3. Poor posture:
An incorrect posture either sleeping or sitting can stretch the musculoskeletal area, producing a headache. This is what causes daily headaches more often. The importance of good posture is to be understood and practiced.
If you often wake up with a crick in your back or sore muscles from sleeping in an awkward position, these could be indicators of this sort of headache.
Posture Look out for daily wake-up indicators, like a crick in your back or a sore arm caused by poor sleeping posture.
4. Sleep disorders:
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome, characterized by repeated breathing pauses during the sleep cycle, is often associated with morning headaches.
This headache typically manifests as uncomfortable pressure on both sides of the head, similar to a tension headache.
When you suffer from sleep apnoea, your airway is partially or completely blocked during sleep. Because of this closure, the amount of oxygen in the blood being transported to your brain is reduced; there is a repeated fall in the oxygen level below the critical level, leading to a morning headache.
People who have obstructive sleep apnoea disorder are often overweight and have other symptoms, such as excessive daytime sleepiness and snoring.
Other sleep disorders such as insomnia affect blood pressure, hormone production, anxiety, stress, and several other aspects of well-being. Do consult a sleep specialist.
5. Bruxism:
Teeth grinding can stimulate pain-sensitive receptor zones, causing a headache. The nerve endings, which are the receptors for pain, can get stimulated.
If you grind your teeth in your sleep, the vibrations will travel up your skeleton and affect your shoulders, neck, and head, often, leading to a sore jaw and a morning headache.
Ask your partner to observe you when you sleep.
6. Medication overuse:
This is also one of the factors that cause daily headaches. One of the ironies of pain medication is that when the medication is used frequently, or in increasing amounts to treat headaches, it can sometimes cause a morning headache.
These are also called rebound headaches and are due to the medication effects wearing off while a person sleeps, causing a type of drug withdrawal reaction. Wean yourself off the medication with the help of a doctor.
7. Food triggers:
Taste is something that’s unavoidable. But still, we’ve to check what causes daily headaches and take care to avoid them as much as possible.
Monosodium glutamate (a food additive), tyramine (found in aged cheeses and cured meats), sulfites and nitrites (both used in preserved foods), and caffeine act as triggers.
Caffeine is a stimulant that stimulates the hypothalamus, thus causing sleep deprivation, and leading to a headache.
If you are consuming too much caffeine, you could suffer from a withdrawal headache the next morning. Eliminate these foods to make sure they are not causing your headache. Besides, stay hydrated.
Diet: Caffeine, food additives like MSG, and elements like tyramine found in cured meats and aged cheese can trigger your headache. Avoid these right before bed.
