If you wake up in the morning with a headache and no explanation, it can be concerning.
According to Mirror, After frantically Googling your symptoms, you may be more worried than when you first woke up, but a doctor shared there may be a “hidden cause” behind the pain in your head.
You may put it down to dehydration, and therefore gulp loads of water, or reckon you’ve not had enough sleep so will look forward to an afternoon nap, but Dr Michelle, who posts on TikTok claimed it could be something you haven’t even thought of.
“What could waking up with headaches mean?”, Dr Michelle asked. She continued: “Well, a lot of the time it means you are actually struggling to get enough air at night to breathe properly once you’re asleep.”
She then provided an explanation and shared: “When you’re awake, all the muscles in your neck area hold open the airways or the tube that we breathe through. But when you go to sleep, particularly a deep sleep, those muscles relax.
“The tongue and the tissue in the back of the throat fall back into the airway and if that airway’s already small or obstructed by tissue, by something, then it’s going to block that airway.
“Your body will do everything it can to open the airway back up again. So first of all, you’ll come out of deep sleep because you need to engage a muscle. as reported by MedicalNewsToday
“You’ll move the bottom jaw forward… you’ll squeeze your teeth because it flattens the tongue – all of these things will open the airway more. But it fatigues the muscles, so you wake up with a sore jaw, sore muscles here [around the face], and headaches because you’re just trying to breathe at night.”
She then urged people who are consistently waking up with headaches to see their GP so they can investigate what’s “going on with your sleeping”
@livingwellwithdrmichelle The Hidden Cause of Morning Headaches! It’s time for a sleep study and cone beam CT scan to address your sleep issues and breathe easier. #HealthAwareness #SleepStudy #MorningHeadaches #SleepStruggles #SleepWellLiveWell #biologicaldentist
♬ original sound – Living Well with Dr. Michelle – Living Well with Dr. Michelle
