look news india
When you wake up in the morning after a good and relaxing sleep, there should be freshness in the body and new energy in the mind. But in today’s fast-paced lifestyle, millions of people are struggling with a strange problem – despite spending 7 to 8 hours in bed every night, when they wake up in the morning, their head remains heavy, a strong pull is felt on the forehead or the back of the neck and they are unable to concentrate on any work throughout the day. This condition is called ‘brain fog’ and ‘morning headache’ in medical language. Often people ignore it as just work stress or effect of weather or take painkillers early in the morning. In fact, the root of this problem lies in the way you sleep and handle your sleep routine.
It has become a common habit of almost everyone to put the alarm on ‘Snooze’ for 5 or 10 minutes after it rings. But according to neurologists, this habit is the biggest reason for morning headache and lethargy. When the alarm first goes off, the brain has come out of sleep.
When you close your eyes again and go to sleep for 10 minutes, your brain tries to enter a new ‘sleep cycle’. But 10 minutes later, when the alarm rings again, the brain is jolted awake in the middle of a deep sleep process. This is called ‘Sleep Inertia’. This sudden disruption causes the neurochemicals to get out of balance, causing a feeling of lightheadedness the moment you wake up in the morning and difficulty concentrating for hours.
Operating a smartphone in a dark room while lying on the bed, scrolling social media or watching web series directly ruins the natural clock mechanism of the eyes as well as the brain. The ‘blue light’ emitted from mobile and laptop screens signals that part of the brain through the eyes that it is daytime.
The main hormones that induce sleep in the brain due to its effect Melatonin Production stops immediately. Even if you keep your phone down and sleep late at night, you are not able to get ‘deep sleep’ or ‘REM sleep’. The brain remains semi-active throughout the night, which puts pressure on the blood vessels of the brain and wakes up in the morning with a severe migraine or tension headache.
Pressure on the nerves in the neck is a major physical cause of morning headaches. Using a pillow that is too high, hard or filled with too much cotton causes the cervical spine of the neck to bend at an unnatural angle.
Staying in this wrong posture for 6 to 8 hours at night causes stiffness in the muscles of the neck and shoulders. This tension spreads directly to the base of the skull, which is called ‘Cervicogenic Headache’. Additionally, sleeping face down on the stomach restricts breathing and reduces the flow of oxygen to the brain. Choosing a balanced orthopedic pillow and sleeping on your back or side keeps the spine straight.
If you feel dryness in the mouth and heaviness in the head as soon as you wake up in the morning, it can be a clear sign of ‘obstructive sleep apnea’ (OSA). In this condition, the throat muscles become loose while sleeping and obstruction occurs in the respiratory tract, due to which the person snores loudly and breathing stops for a few seconds several times throughout the night.
Due to repeated obstruction in breathing, the level of carbon dioxide in the blood increases and the oxygen reaching the brain decreases. The brain dilates the blood vessels to protect itself, causing a severe headache upon waking in the morning, irritability, and extreme drowsiness throughout the day.
During sleep our body continuously loses water through breathing and sweating. If you do not drink enough water before sleeping, the body becomes dehydrated. Dehydration causes brain tissue to temporarily shrink and pull away from the skull, activating pain receptors and causing morning headaches.
Also, eating excessively oily, spicy or sweet food just before sleeping keeps the body busy in digestion throughout the night. Due to this excessive work of the digestive system, the body temperature increases and sleep is interrupted frequently, due to which the cognitive function (ability to think and understand) becomes completely weak the next day.
Make these simple habits your routine to keep your mind recharged and focused throughout the day:
-
Screen-Free Routine: Turn off all digital screens at least 1 hour before sleeping and resort to books or music.
-
One time to sleep and wake up: Sleep and wake up at the same time every day, including weekends, to keep circadian rhythms stable.
-
Focus on hydration: Drink a glass of lukewarm water an hour before sleeping and rehydrate your body by drinking two glasses of plain water first thing in the morning.
-
Light stretching and fresh air: Immediately after waking up in the morning, do light exercises for the neck and shoulders for 5 minutes and open the window and take deep breaths so that the brain gets enough oxygen.