Why Do You Wake Up with a Headache? 12 Common Causes

Sleep is your body’s way of repairing damage and restoring full function to your organs, muscles, and internal systems. After a good night of rest, ideally you should wake up feeling refreshed and free of aches or pains.

But that’s not always the case, is it? As we age, we’re prone to more health problems, which often manifest in surprising ways—including waking up with a headache.

Morning headaches can range from mild to migraines, and can be as frequent as daily or as infrequent as once or twice a year. But understanding what might be causing them is crucial to helping you address the underlying issue and improving your health.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the most common causes of morning headaches. We’ll examine the ordinary factors most likely to contribute to headaches in the morning, as well as more serious medical issues or health concerns that could be causing it.

Keep reading to the end for some advice on when to seek medical help for your problem, as well as a few tips on how you can deal with the problems that are causing your morning headache.

How Common Are Morning Headaches?

One study conducted back in 2004 [1] involving nearly 19,000 people found that roughly 1 in 13, or 7.6% of those questioned, experienced chronic morning headaches.

The frequency ranged from daily (1.3%) to often (4.4%) to sometimes (1.9%). Rates were noticeably higher in those between the ages of 45 and 64, especially among women.

Chronic headaches among those studied tended to last an average of 42 months (nearly four years!) and were frequently linked to both insomnia and major depressive disorders, among other causes.

What Headache Type is Most Common in the Morning?

There are four types of headaches that could affect you in the morning:

• Tension headaches, also called "tension-type headaches", feel like your head is being squeezed by a band. They come with consistent pressure across or around your entire head. The pain will most likely be mild or annoying, but can range to intense and debilitating in some cases.

• Migraine headaches feel like intense throbbing in a specific part of your head. It’s typically an intense pain, and will often be accompanied by dizziness and/or nausea.
• Hypnic headaches, also called "alarm clock headaches", typically occur during the night rather than first thing in the morning. They usually occur while you’re fast asleep. The pain can be intense enough to wake you up. They can occur once or more per night.
• Cluster headaches are a pain located in one part or on one side of your head, but goes away after a short while only to return. This "coming and going" of your headaches can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.

The type of headache you’re experiencing can tell you a surprising amount about what’s causing the problem.

What Could The Reason Be for Waking up with Headaches? 

Waking with a headache isn’t just inconvenient – it points to something worth examining. Looking closely at when and how it happens can reveal patterns you might be overlooking.

Dehydration: Lack of Fluids Overnight

If you don’t drink enough water during the day and go to sleep thirsty, it’s not uncommon for you to wake up with a headache caused by dehydration.

While you sleep, you can’t drink more water, so your mild dehydration can worsen to the point that it causes headaches when you wake up.

Other signs that your headache is caused by dehydration include:

• Dark yellow urine
• Thirst
• Dizziness or feeling lightheaded
• Dry mouth and/or lips

The best way to prevent these headaches is to make sure to drink plenty of water every day. Drink 2-3 liters of water a day, depending on sex and activity level.

Once you give your body enough fluids to stay properly hydrated, the morning headaches ought to diminish.

Sleep Apnea: Interrupted Breathing During Sleep

Sleep apnea is one of the most common headache-causing sleep disorders.

With sleep apnea, your breathing temporarily stops for short periods while you sleep because your airways close down. This upper airway blockage is caused by the muscles in your neck and throat relaxing. This relaxation of the throat muscles during sleep can cause snoring, breathing interruptions, and, come morning, headaches.

Head pain and headaches are just one sign of obstructive sleep apnea.

Other signs may include:

• Heavy and loud snoring
• Frequently waking up at night
• Snorting or gasping when you’re asleep
• Mood changes
• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• Sleep disruption

Mild sleep apnea may interrupt your sleep only a little, but severe and chronic sleep apnea can cause low quality sleep. This can be an underlying cause of headaches, elevated blood pressure, and other health problems.

Try changing your sleep position (to sleep on your side rather than your back), quitting smoking and drinking (which relax your neck muscles), and maintaining a healthy weight. If that doesn’t cure the problem, seek medical help and treatment options for the sleep apnea.

Teeth Grinding (Bruxism): Nighttime Jaw Clenching

Sleep bruxism, or teeth grinding while you sleep, is another common cause of morning headaches. It’s a tension-related disorder caused by stress or anxiety, or it may be caused by some neurological condition.

Symptoms of bruxism include:

• Flattening, chipping, or fracturing of the teeth
• Pain or tenderness in your jaw or face
• Unexplained tooth sensitivity and/or pain
• Unexplained ear pain
• Damage to the inside of your cheek
• Fatigued jaw muscles
• Difficulties with fully opening and closing your jaw

If you also experience morning headaches, especially around the temples, it’s a strong sign that bruxism could be the source of your pain. It’s important to seek professional help to address both the physical symptoms and any underlying psychological factors.

Poor Sleep Posture: Neck and Spine Alignment

Poor sleep posture can trigger headaches by disrupting blood flow to your brain.

When you sleep in funky positions (on your stomach, for example, or with your head twisted at an uncomfortable angle), the strain on your body can cause headaches when you wake up.

Improving your sleep posture so your neck and spine are properly aligned will do wonders to reduce your morning headaches.

Exposure to Toxins: Environmental and Chemical Factors

Toxins in the air you breathe can trigger headaches.

Exposure to environmental and chemical toxins has been shown to cause headaches directly [2]. Аnd though those headaches typically fade after you get away from the toxins, depending on the amount of exposure, they could lead to chronic or unexplained headaches in the days, weeks, or even months following exposure. If this is the case, evaluation by a healthcare provider is necessitated.

Poor air quality may also contribute to headaches. Air pollutants like "particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds" have all been linked to headaches[3], particularly migraines.

Alcohol Consumption: Effects on Sleep Quality

Hangovers are among the most likely risk factors for a morning headache.

When you drink a lot of alcohol, you dehydrate your body so you wake up with all the typical side effects of morning dehydration we listed above. But on top of that, you may also feel nauseous, dizzy, fatigued, thirsty, sweaty, irritable, and experience light and sound sensitivity.

Hangovers tend to worsen as you age. While you may have been able to walk off a night of heavy drinking in your 20s and 30s, by the time you reach your 40s, hangovers can be a cause of serious discomfort—including а serious hangover headache.

Reducing alcohol use is one of the best means of keeping headaches at bay.

Caffeine Withdrawal: Cutting Back Too Quickly

Caffeine withdrawal is an issue common to people who have consumed a lot of coffee and tea for years, but who suddenly quit.

Caffeine causes your blood vessels to constrict (vasoconstriction), which might reduce the prevalence and intensity of headaches, particularly migraines.

However, when you cut off caffeine, there is no vasoconstricting effect, so your blood vessels open wide and blood flow increases. This surge of blood can increase tension headaches.

There’s another side effect of caffeine, too: an increase in adenosine. Caffeine blocks adenosine, which plays a role in energy management and circulation, so your brain has to produce more adenosine receptors to compensate. The sudden elimination of caffeine may cause excessive widening of the blood vessels, allowing for increased blood flow, which can trigger headaches.

It’s better to reduce your coffee intake gradually rather than quit abruptly. Stopping suddenly can lead to headaches, irritability, and other caffeine withdrawal symptoms that may last several days.

Sinus Congestion: Pressure Build-Up in the Sinuses

Headaches may be caused by something as simple as congestion or a build-up of nasal mucus in your nasal passages. 

Allergies, illness, colds, and flus can cause an increase in mucus production, which may build up in your nasal passages while you sleep. This build-up can place pressure on your sinuses, triggering morning headaches.

Sometimes, the headaches ought to go away once you blow your nose. However, sinus headaches often result from inflammation of the sinuses and they may persist for a while longer. The reason is that it takes time for your brain to acclimate to the reduction in sinus pressure.

Medication Overuse: Rebound Headaches Explained

Taking too much of certain medications—for example, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and over-the-counter pain medications like ibuprofen—can cause a "medication overuse headache", also called a "rebound headache".

Taking medications in excess can cause you to grow reliant on the pain-relieving effects of the medications. Then, withdrawal from the medications can cause an increase in pain, including headaches.

Rebound headaches can occur at any time. However, they often occur after three or more months of overusing medications. Reducing your use of OTC medications and prescription drugs can reduce the risk of developing rebound headaches.

Low Blood Sugar: Skipping Meals Before Bed

Hypoglycemic headaches, caused by excessively low glucose in the bloodstream, can feel like a dull throbbing in your temples, (tension headache) a full-blown migraine attack, or a regular headache.

Your body needs a steady level of glucose in the bloodstream. If your blood sugar drops too low overnight, such as when you skip a meal before bed or don’t eat enough during the day, you may wake up with a headache and other symptoms of hypoglycemia.

These symptoms include the following:

• Blurry vision
• Fatigue
• Confusion
• Irritability
• Nervousness
• Increased heart rate

The best way to combat hypoglycemic headaches is to always have something on hand for a quick snack to raise your blood sugar in the morning. Another thing to try is to have a late-night snack before bed to keep your blood sugar levels up overnight.

Stress and Anxiety: Mental Strain Affecting Sleep

The 2004 study that analyzed the prevalence of morning headaches [4] found that some of the most common causes of morning headaches included anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and other mental health conditions. Use of anxiolytic medication to combat anxiety also contributed to higher rates of morning headaches.

Mental strain can cause you to sleep poorly. Not to mention if it co-occurs with sleep apnea or another sleep disorder, causing you to wake up frequently throughout the night with restless or anxious thoughts.

Because of these disorders, you may wake up tired and headachy.

Sleep Disorders: Insomnia and Other Conditions

Sleep-related breathing disorders such as sleep apnea, circadian rhythm disorders, and other sleep conditions like insomnia and narcolepsy are all linked to morning headaches.

These sleep disturbances can raise blood pressure, disrupt your natural sleep cycle, and trigger headaches upon waking.

In fact, chronic morning headaches are one of the most common symptoms of sleep disorders.

When to Seek Medical Advice

It’s good to seek medical advice from your healthcare provider when:

• Headaches last more than 15 days per month for longer than 3 months consecutively. This makes it a chronic health condition, and one that may require medical intervention or treatment.
• Headaches are accompanied by other health problems, such as high blood pressure, brain tumors, cerebral venous thrombosis, or head trauma.
• Headaches are just one of the symptoms you experience, along with fever, nausea, vomiting, and neck stiffness.
• Headaches are accompanied by confusion, dizziness, double vision, loss of consciousness, or weakness.
• The pattern or severity of your headaches changes suddenly.

New or changing headaches if you are older than 50 need to be evaluated by a doctor to rule out serious conditions like temporal arteritis or stroke.

Getting help from a healthcare professional can ensure you address any underlying medical concerns that could cause long-term health problems.

Headaches are a sign that something is wrong in your body, often in or around your brain, but possibly with your blood vessels. Whatever the problem, it needs to be addressed as soon as possible to avoid long-term complications or consequences.

Conclusion: Tips for Prevention and Better Sleep

As you saw above, many of the causes of morning headaches are both preventable and treatable.

A few changes to your lifestyle can make a world of difference when it comes to sleep problems:

• Drink more water throughout the day. Improve your sleep posture and reduce your exposure to environmental toxins.
• Get professional help to address sleep apnea, teeth grinding, stress and anxiety, and sleep disorders.
• Actively work to keep your blood sugar levels stable overnight to reduce nighttime hypoglycemia. Try and keep a healthy weight, especially if you have sleep apnea to reduce pressure on your airways.
• Drink alcohol in moderation and limit caffeine. Consider weaning yourself off caffeine rather than quitting cold turkey.
• Exercise regularly to improve your blood pressure, circulation, and cardiovascular and brain health.
• Follow a balanced diet that actively contributes to better cardiovascular and neurological health.

Above all, prioritize getting enough sleep. Following a consistent sleep schedule and making sure you’re getting a good night’s sleep can and should ease a great many aches and pains.

Healthy sleep habits will ensure you’re sleeping properly and enough. Better sleep means you’ll be more likely to wake up rested and free of morning headaches.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What type of headache is alarming?

Sudden, explosive, and severe headaches—including during and after intense activities like weightlifting, running, and sex—are cause for concern. If they are accompanied by slurred speech, loss of balance, difficulty moving your limbs, memory loss, and vision changes, you may want to get yourself to a hospital to get checked out by a doctor.

What does a stroke headache feel like?

Stroke headaches are also called "thunderclap headaches" because they are sudden, intense, and cause severe pain. Many stroke patients describe them as "the worst pain of my life". They’re often accompanied by vision problems, dizziness, numbness, slurring of speech, or weakness on one side of the body.

Do brain tumors cause morning headaches?

Brain tumors can put pressure on your brain and cause headaches at any time of the day or night. However, morning headaches are a common occurrence with brain tumors. You may also experience vision issues, balance issues, weakness or paralysis, personality changes, thinking difficulties, and seizures.

Resources

Morning Headaches: Why Do I Wake Up With A Headache?

Why do I wake up with a headache?

Here’s Why You’re Always Waking Up With Headaches

Hypnic headache

Why Am I Waking Up With a Migraine?