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Why can you go to sleep with no headache but wake up with a headaches? Reasons for the morning headaches can be tooth grinding, tooth clenching a combination of clenching and grinding and sleep apnea.
The morning headaches associated with clenching and grinding are actually tension headaches. The tension in the muscles is due to lactic acid build up in the muscles and resultant pain. Its like your muscles have been running a marathon all night while you are sleeping.
They never get a chance to relax and just like a marathon runner they “cramp up” and hurt. When you wake up the muscles have not had a chance to relax , in fact they have been doing the complete opposite. The headache pain can be referred from your muscles, from the temporal muscles on the side of your head and even your neck muscles.
Morning headache can be a result of oxygen depletion. If you are snoring or suffer from sleep apnea your oxygen saturation levels in your blood may fall to such low levels while you are sleeping it effects your metabolism while you sleep and lead to a lack of adequate oxygenation of your muscles and lactic acid build up and pain.
Its important you have morning headaches checked. If you have morning headaches and notice wear of your teeth, sensitive teeth, gum recession and chipping of your teeth you should have a dentist check your teeth for the possibility of night time clenching and grinding. If you are aware of snoring or potentially have sleep apnea you should also have this checked out as a reason for your morning headaches. You may need a night time grinding appliance to protect your muscles, teeth and jaw joints. If you suffer from snoring or believe you may have sleep apnea we can arrange for you to take home a device called an ARES unit to test you at night while you sleep. With the results from this test we may refer you to a sleep specialist for evaluation and treatment of your symptoms with either a CPAP or a dental snoring appliance. If you would like to discuss your morning headaches with Calgary dentist Dr. Silver please contact us .
