Do you wake up regularly with headaches? Is it a frequent thing? What could be the cause?
The most common cause seems to be caffeine withdrawal. For those who drink 2-3 cups of coffee (or more) a day, being late on your daily caffeine intake can lead to that early morning headache.
Another common cause is sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea is when we stop completely stop breathing, during sleep. This happens when we are trying to fall into a deeper phase of sleep. However as our muscles relax, our breathing muscles (tongue, throat or sinus/nose muscles) close off our air supply. So that we don’t suffocate, our brain is clever enough to “wake us” back into a lighter phase of sleep. This can happen as much as 60 times an hour! Without deep sleep it’s no wonder we can be tired with a headache in the morning!
And of course another common cause of headaches in the morning is teeth grinding. Clenching/grinding and pain in our TMJ (often also referred to as TMD) can cause soreness of the muscles. If we spend portions of the night grinding or clenching our teeth, not only can they be damaging to the teeth themselves, but it’s like our muscles have “run a marathon” during the night. No wonder they feel sore in the morning! This can radiate to our temples and cause headaches.
Fortunately Northbridge Dentists can custom make thin, comfortable and sleek dental appliances to be worn at night to help manage most forms of sleep apnoea and teeth grinding. This can help with the teeth, muscles, sleeping and headaches! Amazing!
As for the caffeine, well we can’t help there, but these days Sydney is spoilt with good coffee!