How to Keep Headaches from Ruining Your Weekend

You've had a tough week at work and all you want to do is have a restful, stress-free weekend. However, you wake up Saturday morning with a whopper of a headache. How could this be? It's more likely you would have a headache during a stress-filled working day, right? Wrong.

Check out some of the causes and remedies for weekend headaches.

Lack of Caffeine

If your daily routine includes two cups of coffee between 8AM and 10AM during the week, but on Saturday, you don't drink your first cup of coffee until after 10AM, your body's routine will be thrown off track and may cause vasodilation of cranial arteries, which will bring on a "caffeine withdrawal" headache. How to fix it? Read on to the next tip.

Change in schedule

If you wake up at 6:00AM Monday through Friday and go to bed at 10:00PM, it makes sense that your body is going to wonder what is going on at 9:30AM on Saturday morning. The fact that you're accustom to having a shot of caffeine long before that, your body is also wondering why it's not up and around, walking, talking, and thinking. Result? A headache. Try setting your alarm at the same time all weekend. No, you won't get that extra two hours sleep you feel you deserve. But hey, it's your day off. Enjoy it.

Sleep deprivation

Most of us feel we can catch up on our sleep by sleeping in on the weekends. However, as we discussed above, that's not want our body wants. You need to get a good night sleep every night. That doesn't mean you have to go to bed at 9:00PM every night. But if you have to get up at 6:00AM, truthfully, you should be in bed by 10:00PM.

You should also find out if you're getting the right kind of rest. If you've slept seven to eight hours and feel exhausted in the morning, check with your doctor, you may have a sleeping disorder. Sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and teeth grinding are three conditions that can rob you of much needed sleep.

Constipation

If you don't have a regular bowel movement during the week, you may end up with a headache by Friday. Specialists say headaches are one of the many side effects of irregularity, therefore, increasing your fiber intake and drinking lots of water can keep you regular and your headaches infrequent.

So, before you spend another weekend popping pain pills and lying around with a cold pack on your forehead, think over your routine and life-style, you may find relief where you least expect it.