Morning headaches

I have been trying to think why so many of us suffer from moring headaches. Even when I have very low headache days, I still often get a morning headache.
When I leave it alone and take nothing for it, sometimes it stops by itself and I am fine for the rest of the day. But when I have worst days, my headache is definitely worst in the mornings.

Over the years I have been trying to find out the possible causes of it all, I have been trying to ask my docotrs, or watch for the patterns of what I do, and eat etc, but so far nothing has provided me with any sensible answers.

At times I dread going to bed at night just thinking of the morning.

The other day a thought occured to me: is ut simply something to do with a horizontal position of the head at night and more blood flowing into the head?
So, I tried to use an extra high pillows, but it is not good, I seem to slide to my usual position (two light pillows) and end up waking with the ususal feeling: My head hurts and, oh no, it is morning again...

I am sure I am not the only person who feels like this, and no, I cannot sleep sitting up, I would never go to sleep.

Any ideas on the subject?

my only thought is......sleeping causes migraines! mine have always hit about 4 a.m, until the past few years, when they hit any old time. usually it's about 1-2 hours after i've first fallen asleep.

you bet i've tried it all, including sleeping sitting up (i agree, impossible) and pillows and propping up the bed itself with risers, etc. etc.

no theory i've read about has made sense except for, perhaps, cosmic energies (woo-woo?) and hormones, which are known to fluctuate by the time of day or night.

i'd welcome other ideas as it's driven me nuts for years. my bed feels like a torture chamber. dianne

Mine used to happen about 2 to 3 hours after I went to bed. When I told my neuro, he gave me a muscle relaxant. That has worked most of the time.

However, I still switch pillows, at once or twice a night. That also helps.

Martin

Strange, I almost never have migraines in the morning. About 95% of my headaches occur after 12pm.

Do any of you clench your teeth or grind your teeth in your sleep? Your dentist should be able to tell you by looking at your teeth. Also, right as you wake up pay attention to your jaw to see if you were clenching it. My dentist gave me a mouth guard to prevent that and it's supposed to help with morning headaches. I don't wear mine though... I stopped most of my clenching just by willpower/relaxing I suppose.

seaine, i've spent multiple thousands acting upon that jaw-displacement theory. had 3 different appliances made thru the years, and none helped one bit. so that isn't a factor in my case, but definitely worth checking out with a knowledgeable dentist.

warning, though: dentists seem to think that finding TMJ and fixing clenching/grinding will fix everyone. too bad it doesn't. dianne

I am so sorry, I wanted to reply to you all more fully, but at the moment I have visitors who are staying the weekend, so I am terribly busy.
Thank you to evryone for your interesting replies.

dcook60 wrote:warning, though: dentists seem to think that finding TMJ and fixing clenching/grinding will fix everyone. too bad it doesn't. dianne

Yeah, the dentist that told me about my clenching was ridiculously forceful about me getting and wearing my mouthguard. Well I gave it a try, couldn't sleep because I couldn't close my lips over it so my mouth dried out. Anyways, now that I am not clenching much it doesn't seem to have affected my headaches. The only improvement is my jaw does not seem to hurt much anymore where before it sometimes was sore.

Do you get very sleepy during the day? If so, with the headaches, it could be sleep apnea. The headaches/migraines can happen if you're not getting enough oxygen in the night, which is how I was getting many of my migraines. I sleep like a baby now, and I don't wake up hurting, I just sleep with a cpap.

Oh that reminds me, I asked my neurologist for a referral because of how sleepy I was during the day. I ended up getting one of those overnight sleep tests/next day nap test. They test you for all kinds of stuff including sleep apnea, which could make you feel like crap for sure. All I got out of it was a diagnosis of non-narcolepsy hypersomnia... in other words, chronic fatigue syndrome.

Over the past few months I have been waking up in the middle of the night or morning with headaches/migraines. At first I thought it was from neck posture but now I suspect it has to do with how hydrated I am when I go to bed. I try to drink at least glass of water before sleeping to eliminate these headaches and I think it is working.

Look on the internet for information regarding CPAP treatment and migraines. You'll find a wealth of information. It seems to be really helping some people and requires no additional meds!!

My daughter sounds just like you and she's been through recent testing for everything under the sun after a life of heavy meds. She's beginning CPAP tonight.

There is hope!

____________________________
men's health

Over the past few months I have been waking up in the middle of the night or morning with headaches/migraines. At first I thought it was from neck posture but now I suspect it has to do with how hydrated I am when I go to bed. I try to drink at least glass of water before sleeping to eliminate these headaches and I think it is working.

I always take a glass of water and put it on my nightstand at night. I will generally drink from it several times at night when I wake up so it's usually 1/2 or more gone in the morning. I almost never get morning headaches. Cant say if that is why, but perhaps.

I had a period of time when I woke with M. I just drifted into another time phase probably 5-6 months.

Thank you for all your feedback and ideas.
I also think that dehydration and morning h/a are connected. However I have a problem with this issue. I sleep quite well and I am very sound sleeper, but if anything wakes me up from a deep sleep (like having to use a bathroom) I find it almost impossible to go back to sleep again and lack of sleep is a ceratn migraine trigger for me.

I always make sure that I do drink a lot of water during the day, but I try not to drink too close to my bedtime, as I dread being woken up at night, because I need to use the bathroom, and this happens of I drink anything close to my bedtime. I have tried various options and combinations but I have not found satisfactiry solution to this problem.

The morning h/a are not usually too bad, nothing like a proper migraines, and I have days with no h/a, so I have learned to live with it, even if I would much prefer to be able to get rid of them.

Sounds like a catch-22. See this article for one ladies approach to morning headaches.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2012/08/08/migraine-remedies-readers-weigh-in/

See also this article on possible causes.

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/could-a-sleep-disorder-be-causing-your-patients-migraines/article/253915/

Thank You, Migrainegirl, a most interesting article.
I suppose I should consider sleepapnea as a possibility, but I am not sure I could cope sleeping all night with some strange breathing device attached to my face.

BTW as it happens this morning I have woken up with no h/a at all.
Still I will bear the article in mind, as a future reference, so thanks again.

Always great to ave a no migraine day!

Anecdotally some people report good success with the sleep apnea treatment and others not.
Just like everything else it seems. Still worth checking out if your headaches are in the am.

Pain free days!

Hello everyone ,Ive suffered with migraine for all of high school
and mine was every monday morning like clockwork ,what works for me?
believe it are not " A change of diet".
The possible causes of headaches are numerous. They maybe something unimportant or the first sign of something serious. there are certain foods that can cause them, Avoiding these can be the most efffective course of prevention, once other potential organic causes are rule out.
try eliminateing these foods .
Alcoholic Beverages

* Cured cheeses
* Chocolate
* Shellfish
* Cured meats
* Additives
* White sugar
* Dairy products
* Ice cream
* Citrus Fruits

These contain tyramine, a proven vasocontrictor that can cause migraine.

BevChev.

I hate waking up with a migraine!! They can get out of hand during sleep because you can't medicate them when you first feel them. Often times I'll pay attention to how I feel before bed and take a pill before bed if I feel one coming on. Of course that's dangerous because you don't want to overdo it with the medication if you're not sure.

bevchev, thanks for the tyramine list. "additives" is a really big one on this list. what, pray tell, can one buy in an american supermarket without additives?

as i've said here in other posts, after years and years of suffering, i now know i cannot eat ANY food chemicals/additives. this limits my diet considerably, but keeps me out of bed. although i still have daily migraines, i don't get the killer ones anymore.

except yesterday, when i was in bed for 36 hours. the culprit was a frozen hunk of swordfish from trader joe's. since i haven't had swordfish for several years, i don't know if the horrid reaction was from the fish itself, or something the fish was soaked/washed in. if it's under a certain amount, the food processors aren't obligated to list something like sulfites or phosphates on the label.

pure, organic dairy products, citrus, and sugar in moderation don't bother me at all. we are all so different! so we know it's tyramine for some, msg and its clones for others, and true allergies for still others of us. yet, it is so WORTH IT to figure out the food issues. (it only took me, oh, about 15 years and counting).

for one who is exquisitely sensitive, this is a huge problem. i try to stick to brands i know. t.j.'s was out of the salmon i went to the store in search of.........drat. dianne

Hi all, I have more morning M than any other time & mine have been chronic since I was a teen. Am now 62. Never got better after menopause either. They usually hit around 4am. I have found if I get right up & sit up they lessen in intensity but I am usually so tired I can't do that. But I too wonder why. My personal feeling is it has to do w blood flow. It is not from TMJ or sleep apnea in my case( been tested). Have not investigated the dehydration issue but I have drank too much liquid before bed before & still woken at 4am in a M! So... Not sure what to think but it is interesting to me that lying down when I have a M makes it worse!

indyjanie, we sound like twins! my worst head pain always used to hit at 4 a.m. i was BORN at 4:13 a.m. hmmmmm, maybe there's something to the cosmic cycle theory.

my M's got worse after menopause, also. so, like you, i have a long history of these monsters. in the past many years, though, i have them daily, and they can hit any old time. i've had multitudes of sleep studies, tmj studies, etc. etc. and whichever specialist does these tests, they always come up with something.

treating the "something", though, always fails to help. i think our heads are just determined and programmed to hurt. were it not for the triptan drugs, i would have had a very miserable and painful life. taking two of the triptans (alternating days) has allowed me to work and do most things i want to do. i wish the same for you, and all who visit here. dianne

To dcook60 thanks Dianne for the reply. We do seem to have the same migraine issues. I too think my imitrex is my salvation. Before that came out I was miserable & had a very rough time getting through HS. I always hoped that they would eventually lessen. No such luck 45+ yrs later! We can only plug along relishing the pain free days!