A specialist doctor revealed a "hidden reason" that may be behind suffering from headaches in the early morning upon waking up. Dr. Michelle, famous on TikTok with her account @livingwellwithdrmichelle, said: "What can morning headaches mean? Well, often, it means you are having trouble getting enough air at night to breathe properly as soon as you sleep."
She explained: "When you are awake, all the muscles in the neck area open the airways, or the tube we breathe through. But when you go to sleep, especially deep sleep, those muscles relax. The tongue and tissues in the back of the throat fall back into the airway, and if the airway is already small or blocked by tissues or something, the tongue will obstruct it."
Michelle added: "Your body will do everything it can to reopen the airway. So, first and foremost, you will wake up from deep sleep because you need to engage some muscle. You will move your lower jaw forward and clench your teeth to flatten the tongue, which opens the airway more, but this process strains the muscles, causing you to wake up with jaw and muscle pain and suffer from headaches in the morning because you were trying to breathe at night."
She then urged those who consistently wake up with headaches to consult their general practitioner to check what is happening during sleep.
