Always Waking Up With a Headache or Migraine? Here's What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You

You want to feel refreshed when you wake up — not beaten down with a headache before you've even put on your slippers. But here you are, with a throbbing headache. What's going on?

"Morning headaches are super common. Research shows that about one in 13 people will experience them in their life," says Raj Dasgupta, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine at Keck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, California. "The things that happen during the night manifest into what happens during the day."

Relief isn't just popping ibuprofen and hoping it goes away — it's uncovering the trigger. Here's what might be going on.

"Having a sleep disorder makes you two to eight times more likely to develop a morning headache," Dr. Dasgupta says.

Part of treating insomnia is getting good sleep hygiene practices into place, including maintaining a consistent sleep-wake routine, sleeping in a cool, dark room and limiting screen time before bed.

Depression is a risk factor for insomnia. And if you have anxiety, you may find it difficult to turn off the worries swirling around your head — something that makes it difficult to fall asleep.

Ultimately, both depression and anxiety can cause poor sleep that triggers a headache in the morning, Dr. Dasgupta says. This could also have to do with changes in your levels of serotonin — a neurotransmitter responsible for mood and sleep, per Johns Hopkins Medicine.

If you have untreated depression or anxiety, count this as one more benefit to seeking treatment, like teletherapy. A designated bedtime stress-reliever, like meditation, could also help reduce anxiety while drifting off to sleep.

Are you snoring? Actually, let's rephrase that question: If you have a bed partner, do they say you snore?

"Sleep apnea is characterized by multiple arousals and awakenings through the night, which impairs your ability to get into deeper and more restful stages of sleep," Dr. Dasgupta says.

Morning headaches, along with excessive daytime sleepiness, are defining symptoms of sleep apnea, per Mayo Clinic. If you are snoring at night, you should see your doctor to rule out obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), as the condition is associated with heart disease and stroke.

Sleeping on your back encourages snoring — and remember, anything that cuts into sleep can cause a headache.

One older study, published May 2011 in ‌Cephalalgia‌, found that about one-quarter of snorers also had morning headaches.

Try rolling over for a sounder and quieter slumber. (And promise not to be offended if your bed partner elbows you to get you to turn.)

This one can be sneaky. "Acid reflux may not fully wake you up at night, but it can lead to arousals during sleep," Dr. Dasgupta says.

To help tame the burn, nix eating later in the night — wait at least three hours after a meal to hit the hay, per the Mayo Clinic. And try elevating the head of your bed or sleeping with a wedge between your mattress and box spring to raise your upper body a bit higher.

If you continue to have issues, or get other symptoms like a bad taste in your mouth, bad breath or a sore throat, talk to your doctor.

It's possible you're grinding your teeth at night — and the repeated pressure and strain from clenching leads to a morning headache.

In fact, in a May 2020 study in the journal ‌Headache‌, the more often grinding happened, the more often "wake-up headaches" did, too.

See your dentist, who may recommend a mouth guard to protect your teeth. And while experts are still trying to fully understand why we grind our teeth, it could be helpful to take a look at your own life and habits as a jumping off point.

Stress could be a big cause, but research from the American Dental Association also finds that drinking alcohol or caffeine and smoking may also contribute to grinding.

If you're having trouble sleeping at night, you might take the advice of sleep experts and cut out the java in the afternoon or evening.

"By treating your insomnia, you may cut out caffeine cold turkey and experience a rebound headache," Dr. Dasgupta says.

The good news is that these headaches will go away once your body adjusts.

Headaches are a classic symptom of a hangover — that much is obvious. The body metabolizes alcohol into the toxic substance acetaldehyde, and that, in addition to general dehydration, is what's responsible for morning hangover headaches, notes Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Perhaps more surprisingly, alcohol is a known sleep disruptor, affecting the quality and quantity of sleep you get in the second half of your night. Meaning: You may not think you drank a lot, but you're still saddled with head pain in the morning because the booze messed with your slumber.

The fix: Rethink that drink at night to help you get more restful sleep.

If you get tension or migraine headaches, you may routinely treat them with over-the-counter pain relievers, such as ibuprofen or naproxen. But taking these meds more than a couple times per week can actually cause rebound headaches, which occur as a result of withdrawal from the medication. These headaches may wake you up in the morning, according to the Mayo Clinic.

If these medications might be the cause of your headaches, talk to your doctor about other ways to treat your tension or migraine pains. They can also offer ways to safely get off certain medications — a time when headaches can get worse.