Headache during the day - could daytime naps be the cause?

Physiology

Newborn babies sleep 16 hours a day. At the same time, for them, daytime rest is considered not only a normal phenomenon, but also a physiological need, which is associated with inadequate development of the nervous system. Do adults need naps during the day? If the correct daily routine is observed, then a night's rest will be enough to keep a person alert during working hours.

But due to the modern rhythm of life, not everyone can follow the correct daily routine, so 8 hours of sleep at night may not be enough. Therefore, some people prefer to rest during the day. Proper sleep is not a 30-minute nap in inappropriate conditions. Therefore, the result that appears is not the one expected. There is a feeling of fatigue, headache, which disrupts the usual rhythm.

Preventing headaches after sleep

If headaches after waking up in the morning or during the day are not associated with pathological conditions, then their occurrence can be avoided by following simple recommendations. Prevention of cephalalgia is as follows:

• avoid physical and mental fatigue;
• limit or eliminate the consumption of strong drinks (coffee, alcohol, energy drinks);
• adjust your diet by adding vegetables, fruits, and healthy foods;
• create comfortable conditions for relaxation (bed, mattress, pillow, linen).

In addition, it is necessary to ventilate the room more often, spend more time in the air and perform breathing exercises before going to bed.

Causes

Why does my head hurt after a nap? An uncomfortable state can appear for various reasons. They are divided into several groups. Common reasons for headaches and nausea after a nap include inappropriate rest conditions:

1. It is not always possible to ensure proper sleep, in which you lie down on a bed or an orthopedic pillow. At the same time, the room should be dark.
2. Often, during daytime rest, a person is in the wrong position - reclining, sitting, in a chair or at a table. Due to this position, pinching of blood vessels occurs, especially in the neck and temporal parts. Lack of blood causes brain hypoxia and headaches occur.
3. Daytime sleep often takes place in stuffy rooms, which also leads to oxygen deficiency, as well as brain hypoxia. This creates an uncomfortable feeling in the head.
4. If you hear extraneous sounds while sleeping, you won’t get proper rest. The brain will process incoming information.

There are other reasons why you get a headache after a nap:

1. A healthy night's sleep includes periodic changes in phases - fast and slow. They are repeated at least 3 times, which fits into an 8-hour rest period for the brain. During the daytime, these conditions are not met - dozing cannot bring the necessary rest to the brain, and therefore a headache appears.
2. The body may not be in the mood for rest during the day. Even if by external signs it seems that a person is sleeping, he continues to work. And since there is a disruption in the connection between the brain and the environment, an uncomfortable feeling appears in the head.
3. After a day's rest, blood pressure often increases, which occurs when blood vessels are compressed.

To stay alert during the day, you need to sleep properly at night. For this there must be a suitable bed, bedding and all the furnishings in the room. The sleeping room should be dark; it is important that there are no extraneous sounds, music, or televisions on.

It is necessary to go to bed and get up at the same time. Gradually a habit is formed, and the person feels more cheerful. Before this, it is necessary to ventilate the room, and in the warm season it is advisable to sleep with the windows open. If the night's sleep is of high quality, then during the day a person does not want to sleep. He will feel cheerful.

Excess melatonin

American scientists also became interested in the phenomenon of fatigue after long sleep and conducted studies on volunteers suffering from drowsiness and fatigue. It turned out that all these people had too high levels of melatonin in their blood.

Normally, this hormone is released in the evening, when it’s time to fall asleep, and is destroyed in the morning. However, the rhythm of life of a modern person can disrupt this process.

Most people go to bed and get up not with sunset and sunrise, as before, but with this time shifted by several hours. And, having felt drowsy, not everyone immediately goes to bed.

Someone is watching the film, someone continues to update their page on the Internet. As a result, natural biorhythms are disrupted.

Melatonin is not destroyed in time, and the person does not feel rested.

The best way out of this situation will also be to follow the regime. Go to bed earlier, get up earlier, and be sure to do it at the same time.

What leads to this?

Why does my head hurt after a nap? It's connected with:

• lack of oxygen;
• incorrect position of the head relative to the body;
• tension in the muscles of the neck and back when the position is uncomfortable;
• extraneous sounds, light;
• short sleep duration.

In this case, there can be one or several factors. These are all the reasons why you get a headache after a nap. All of these factors lead to discomfort. This can occur either constantly or periodically, it all depends on the state of health.

Is napping required?

Since the desired effect usually does not appear with daytime sleep, it is preferable to replace it with another type of rest. If you feel tired and want to sleep, you need to change the type of activity. Why does my head hurt and my blood pressure rise after a nap? This is often associated with hypoxia. In this case, fresh air provides a positive effect. You need to open the window, go out onto the balcony or street, and perform gymnastic exercises to restore blood circulation in the brain.

If a person has to do monotonous work, he needs to be distracted by an active activity. The brain will switch and the desire to sleep will be eliminated. You can complete a puzzle or solve a logic problem, do gymnastics for the eyes or shoulder girdle.

Treatment with drugs and traditional methods

It is not recommended to prescribe medication on your own, but if necessary, you can relieve pain with painkillers (Ibuprofen, Nise, Analgin, etc.). Also, to get rid of pain after sleep, take:

• medications that relieve vasospasm: Nitroglycerin, Spazmalgon, etc.;
• anti-inflammatory and antipyretic drugs such as Paracetamol or Aspirin;
• tablets that increase blood pressure: Caffetin, Citramon, etc.;
• herbal tinctures against low blood pressure.

If you have been examined and doctors have not found any serious pathologies, but a headache still occurs periodically after a long sleep, traditional methods of treatment will help solve the problem. To get rid of headaches caused by sleep, use:

• inhalation with lemon balm, lavender, orange or rosemary oil; they can also be used for compresses, but it is better to consult a doctor first;
• sedative herbal infusions, including valerian root, wormwood, St. John's wort, motherwort (they help not only with headaches - they have a beneficial effect on the state of the nervous system as a whole);
• water at room temperature with lemon;
• weak tea with sugar;
• cabbage leaf (applied to the diseased area);
• lemon zest (should be rubbed onto your temples and forehead).

Traditional methods didn't help? Perhaps the headache is a symptom of the disease. You need to see a doctor to get rid of the specific cause that is causing the discomfort.

Symptoms

The discomfort manifests itself in the form of the following symptoms:

• fatigue, weakness;
• the desire to sleep increases;
• feeling of heaviness in the head;
• pain syndrome;
• congestion, tinnitus;
• dry eyes;
• pain in the neck and shoulders.

Why do my head and eyes hurt after a nap? This is also due to the above reasons. Symptoms appear either one at a time or several at the same time. However, they may have varying degrees of severity. This is due to the circumstances and conditions under which the dream took place.

What can be done?

If you have headaches in the morning, you can make a compress from the leaves of white cabbage or onions, applying it to the temporal area.

Heart attacks and strokes are the cause of almost 70% of all deaths in the world. Seven out of ten people die due to blockages in the arteries of the heart or brain. And the very first and main sign of vascular blockage is a headache!

Particularly scary is the fact that the mass of people do not even suspect that they have a disorder in the vascular system of the brain and heart. People take painkillers - a pill for the head, thereby missing the opportunity to fix something, simply dooming themselves to death.

Blockage of blood vessels results in a disease under the well-known name “hypertension”, here are just some of its symptoms:

• Headache
• Increased heart rate
• Black dots before the eyes (floaters)
• Apathy, irritability, drowsiness
• Blurred vision
• Sweating
• Chronic fatigue
• Swelling of the face
• Numbness and chills in fingers
• Pressure surges

How to fix it?

If you have a headache after a nap, what should you do? If you still had to rest during the day, then there are ways to eliminate the discomfort. They are non-medicinal and with the use of drugs. Each person can choose the most acceptable types of relief from an uncomfortable condition.

Non-drug treatment is as follows:

1. A head and neck massage is performed. Rubbing and stroking movements are necessary, which restore blood circulation in the problem area, ensure the supply of oxygen to the brain, and lead to muscle relaxation. Over time, the unpleasant sensations of pain disappear.
2. Breathing exercises are effective. It needs to be done in the fresh air. Thanks to full and deep inhalations and exhalations, the body will be saturated with oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide. This provides nutrition to the brain cells, and therefore the headache disappears.
3. Carry out standard charging. Since headaches often occur in conditions where it is difficult to perform massage or breathing exercises, regular exercise will do. With its help, blood circulates throughout the body, tense muscles relax and well-being returns to normal.
4. If an uncomfortable state appears at home, after a working day, then a contrast shower will do. Temperature changes are aimed at improving blood circulation in the neck and head. In addition, massage movements with water jets also have a positive effect.

Reduce exposure to irritants

Squeezing of blood vessels in the neck and head. If during sleep a person takes one position for a long time, then the vessels on that side will be compressed, and blood circulation in them will be impaired.

If blood does not flow in the required quantity, the process of inflammation of the nerves and vessel walls will begin. In the event that blood is supplied intermittently, an appropriate signal will be generated indicating that there are violations.

Impulses arrive from the place where the problem is observed, with information about the violation. Then it sends a response impulse, which contains information, to the surrounding muscles that protection is needed.

And the muscles of the forehead, back of the head and temples tense. As a result, a person wakes up, headaches, a feeling of heaviness and numbness appear.

Many people believe that poor health appears after a long sleep or with a lack of it.

Lack of oxygen. If you fall asleep in an unventilated room where there is no access to fresh air, you may have a headache when you wake up.

The brain needs oxygen not only in the intervals between sleep and active activity, but also at night. It is needed most in the morning.

In a closed room, there is no way for the toxins that a person exhales to escape, and they enter the body back when inhaling. Ultimately, the body begins to be poisoned with toxins, and the receptors responsible for pain in the lining of the brain and the walls of blood vessels will begin to send corresponding impulses to the brain.

To avoid waking up every day with a headache, you can simply eliminate some of the nuances that disrupt the quality of your sleep. This can be as simple as airing the room several times a day, because stuffiness leads to hypoxia and vascular spasm, which results in pain after sleep.

Or maybe dust has accumulated in the room? Polluted air also leads to headaches. When you inhale dust particles through your nose, they settle on the mucous membrane, which leads to breathing problems.

The brain again suffers from oxygen deficiency and responds to the stimulus with pain.

We remove the pillows, get rid of the “royal bed”

There are various causes of headaches in the morning, they can be divided into two broad categories:

1. Not related to diseases.
2. Caused by any disease.

Medicines

The article shows the reasons why you get a headache after a nap. What to do if these measures do not help? In this case, medications are used. Based on their effect, they are divided into several groups:

1. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. These are the most common medications for headaches. Effectively use Nurofen, Mig, Next.
2. Combined medications. They include several substances that act on different mechanisms of discomfort. Pentalgin and Nurofen plus are used.
3. Antihypertensive drugs. Often pain occurs due to increased blood pressure, so doctors prescribe medications that lower it. Such medications are prescribed by doctors individually.
4. For migraines. When sleeping during the day has led to migraine attacks, drugs such as Nomigren, Sumamigren, and Amigrenin can help eliminate them.

Diseases of the vascular system

These include lesions of blood vessels at various levels inside the brain.

Namely:

1. Atherosclerosis of cerebral vessels in combination with arterial hypertension can lead to chronic circulatory disorders in the brain. Morning headache in this case is not the only symptom. It is accompanied by: memory impairment, a slight decrease in intellectual abilities, dizziness, soreness in the eyes, numbness of the limbs, and less often, loss of consciousness.
2. Vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels in the brain) – a patient with this diagnosis has a headache in the morning, and during the day the pain becomes pulsating.

A headache may not be due to a bad pillow or lack of oxygen in the room. If you have eliminated all possible causes, and the pain continues to bother you in the morning and during the day, most likely some disease is to blame.

How to understand what kind of disease this is? Go for a consultation with a doctor who will establish the correct diagnosis and prescribe appropriate treatment. Let us give as examples several ailments that are accompanied by headaches after sleep.

If you suspect that your headache is not just like that, but signals the presence of some pathology, you should not postpone your visit to the doctor. The sooner the true cause is discovered, the sooner you will get rid of the unpleasant symptom.

ethnoscience

You can eliminate the discomfort after identifying the reason why your head hurts after a nap. How to deal with this using traditional medicine? They are perfect for those who don’t trust medications or don’t want them to become addictive. The following remedies can help relieve the symptoms of headaches:

1. Citrus essential oils. If you rub your temples with citrus zest, the intensity of the pain decreases and the person feels tired.
2. Strong sweet tea. Drinking this drink after sleep eliminates discomfort.
3. A gruel of grated potatoes. The severity of pain is reduced if this product is applied to the temples and forehead.
4. Mint decoction. The product relieves fatigue and restores blood circulation in the neck and brain vessels.

When discomfort and pain appear regularly, you should not self-medicate. This may indicate a serious illness that requires medical attention.

Causes of pain in the head after a nap

The scourge of the 21st century is chronic fatigue syndrome. This disease is difficult to diagnose.

Also, not every person who feels tired for several days after sleep has this disease. You should be concerned if the feeling of exhaustion after a long sleep does not go away within several months.

It is also difficult for you to carry out your work and normal daily activities. The desire to communicate with other people disappears.

The patient feels anxious and is constantly depressed. If you notice such symptoms, you should consult a doctor.

Prevention

Prevention will help prevent discomfort. To avoid headaches, it is important:

• follow a sleep and rest schedule;
• eliminate overwork, anxiety and stress;
• learn to breathe deeply and evenly;
• maintain proper nutrition - reduce intake of salt, animal proteins, chocolate, hard cheeses, coffee;
• exercise;
• Perform regular screenings for heart and vascular diseases.

During the day you usually want to sleep because you had a bad rest at night. Therefore, it is necessary to normalize sleep in the dark to ensure good health and mood.

If you have unpleasant sensations in your head after a nap, you need to reconsider your daily routine and give up such rest. If there is no relief after this, it is advisable to switch to other activities in which you can relax and take a break from everyday work.

Traditional medicine in the fight against headaches

Frequent headaches in the morning can bring a lot of inconvenience to a person’s life. The inability to concentrate on important matters sometimes leads to neurosis. Treatment of pathology should be carried out after consultation with a specialist and only with proven medications. Today, there is a wide range of medications designed to relieve headaches.

If you have a headache, your doctor will prescribe medications from the following list:

• analgesics. Commonly used products that can be purchased without a prescription. They are used to relieve discomfort in the head area, as well as to relieve fever. These include: Aspirin, Analgin, Panadol, Paracetamol.
• Antispasmodics. They relieve headaches and dilate blood vessels.
• Nootropic drugs: Piracetam, Nootropil. The spectrum of action is similar to antispasmodics.
• Anti-inflammatory non-steroidal drugs: Diclofenac, Ibuprofen, Nise, Aspirin. One of the properties of medications in this direction is the relief of headaches.
• Antihypertensive drugs. Used in the treatment of hypertension.
• Antidepressants. If the headache after sleep is caused by a malfunction of the nervous system, then the neurologist will prescribe these medications to eliminate the symptoms.
• Medicines against migraine: Dihydrergot, Redergin. This group of drugs narrows blood vessels.
• Medicines that eliminate cephalalgia caused by migraine: Imigran, Zomig.

Before using medications, you should consult a doctor. It is he who, before prescribing a course of therapy, will analyze the symptoms and find out the causes of the disease.

With chronic headaches, a person cannot limit himself to taking medications. He will need to carry out an examination of the body, find out the causes of headaches, and undergo medical therapy.