Starting the day with a morning coffee is the norm for adults around the world. The flavorful taste and caffeine kick are an effective way to stimulate the brain and get ready for the day ahead. For most people, there’s nothing better, but for some, that morning coffee can trigger an unwanted headache. Understanding why these headaches happen can help you avoid them. Here are the reasons why your morning coffee may be causing your headaches and what you can do to avoid them.
Caffeine withdrawal Headaches
Once you’ve made coffee part of your morning routine, it’s hard to imagine going without a morning cup. Sometimes we may miss our morning cup for various reasons and that’s often when we experience a headache. This headache is a result of caffeine withdrawal – caffeine is a stimulant that the body becomes dependent on. When you don’t take your daily dose the body reacts in a negative way.
Caffeine withdrawal isn’t just triggered when we miss our morning cup of coffee. If we have our first coffee of the day later than normal we may also experience caffeine withdrawal. It’s best to try and maintain a regular routine if you want to avoid headaches.
Caffeine Overdose Headaches
Drinking too much coffee can also trigger a headache in some coffee drinkers. The recommended daily dose of caffeine is 400mg or 4 cups of coffee a day. If you exceed this amount you are at risk of a caffeine overdose. Common symptoms of an overdose include twitchiness, sleeplessness, irritability, and headaches.
Even when we limit our coffee consumption to no more than 1 or 2 cups a day we can still experience a caffeine overdose. That’s because we may be taking caffeine in other foods and beverages without even realizing it. There’s caffeine in chocolate, tea, soft drinks, and energy drinks and all of them can contribute to a caffeine overdose. If you find you often have a headache after drinking coffee, limiting our daily intake of these items, as well as reducing our coffee consumption, will reduce the number of headaches we experience.
Coffee and Migraines
If you suffer from migraines you may find that coffee can make matters worse. There are foods and beverages that can trigger migraines and coffee is one of them. It’s thought the migraines are triggered by electrical activity in the brain and coffee stimulates this electrical activity triggering migraines or making them worse.
The good news is that 1 or 2 cups do not normally trigger a migraine in regular coffee drinkers – it usually takes 3 or more, so as long as you limit your coffee consumption you should be fine. For occasional coffee drinkers, any amount can contribute to a migraine, so it may be best to switch to a decaffeinated blend.
Finding Relief from a Caffeine Headache
There are some lifestyle changes we can make that can help to reduce the possibility of a caffeine-induced headache. Avoid drinking coffee on an empty stomach and remember to drink lots of water. This will help to prevent dehydration which can contribute to headaches. If this doesn’t work and you’re not ready to give up coffee, an over-the-counter pain reliever or a cold cloth on the forehead may provide some welcome relief.