Weekend headaches: WTF?

November 22, 2013 11:23 AM

For the last two weeks, I've woken up on Saturday morning with a nasty headache that has lasted the entire day. Help?

YANMD/YANAD yada yada but recently, I've woken up on Saturday mornings with a headache that doesn't go away. It's a bummer because it renders me nearly incapacitated for a whole day that would otherwise be spent doing things other than lying in bed with the lights off.

I hesitate to use the word "migraine" because I think that refers to something specific but it's a moderate headache that lasts at least four hours and is occasionally accompanied by increased sensitivity to light and sound, as well as nausea. Since I haven't been treated for migraines, I don't have any special medicine but I took Excedrin Migraine last weekend and it didn't do much. I felt better after several hours in a dark room.

I think I experience similar headaches occasionally when I go visit my family. I usually sleep in on Saturdays and when I visit family but other times I sleep in and don't get a headache so I don't know what's going on. I also make sure when I have a headache that I'm not dehydrated by checking for clear-ish urine and that hasn't been an issue recently.

I am a coffee drinker but I drink coffee on the weekends and when visiting family so I don't think my headaches are withdrawal related (and I usually only drink one cup a day anyway). Occasionally, I'll have an adult beverage before the onset of a headache but again, at most, one or two drinks. I don't know if it's seasonal or weather-related.

I try to identify where the headache is but it's not one specific place, it just seems like it's all over. It could be my sinuses but wouldn't I have other sinus symptoms? I have had an IUD for over a year so I don't think it's birth control or pregnancy related.

Mentally, when I get a headache, I usually ask myself if I could be dehydrated or have low blood sugar. That has not been the case recently. Dr. Google also suggested that it might be stress-related but I try to do yoga during the week. Do I need to focus more on stress reduction during the week so my body doesn't freak out on the weekend?

I need to sleep, eat and work out better but my sleeping, eating, and working out haven't been terrible lately. Being able to do anything on Saturday would be helpful.

It seems that other people have had a similar problem and that waking up and doing something in the morning rather than sleeping in may help, even if it leads to a nap later in the day. Should I give that a shot? It would be annoying to have to wake myself up early just so I don't feel lousy all day but that's a trade-off I'm willing to make. Should I bug my doctor?

Does anyone else deal with this? I can certainly try making some lifestyle changes to see if it improves. This isn't a major life issue for me but it's definitely annoying and unpleasant. Thanks for your help!

posted by kat518 to Health & Fitness (29 answers total)

When I get headaches like that it's usually something I've eaten. For me it's dairy and other carbs. Have you been eating something different on Friday nights?
posted by heavenstobetsy at 11:25 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Do you sleep a lot later on weekends? Maybe you are unusually sensitive to caffeine, and is missing that one cup at the regular time? You could try switching to decaf altogether for a week or two and see if it still happens.
posted by rpfields at 11:27 AM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]

I would definitely experiment with getting up early/not sleeping in. Give it a try tomorrow. Then reassess.
posted by Sassyfras at 11:27 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Are you sleeping somewhere different or in a different position when you have these headaches? Maybe your neck is getting tense or strained while you sleep, leading to waking up with a headache. Or it could just be all the tension from the week building up in your muscles and leaving you with a tension headache.
posted by yasaman at 11:28 AM on November 22, 2013

Also with the dehydration/sinus thing... it's much dryer (drier? I don't know) in the winter, so maybe your sinuses are getting dried out overnight while you sleep for longer than you normally do? Perhaps a dehumidifier will help?
posted by Grither at 11:29 AM on November 22, 2013

Do you grind your teeth? My sister had morning headaches regularly before being fitted for a mouth guard.
posted by hydrobatidae at 11:30 AM on November 22, 2013

It sounds like the coffee to me. :-/ I know you drink it on the weekends, but if it's later than normal, you may get the headache triggered before you drink the coffee. This is actually why I stopped drinking coffee on a regular basis -- I used to be fine with skipping it, but at some point a switch flipped and being even half an hour late with the morning coffee meant a massive, multi-hour headache. (I live in fear that this will happen to my morning tea.)

If you skip your coffee on a weekday, do you get a headache? If so, I'd say that's definitive.
posted by pie ninja at 11:32 AM on November 22, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks everyone so far!

- I don't think I'm eating anything differently though maybe I'll start food journaling?
- Even when I do drink coffee, it's not at a specific time so I'm hesitant to point to that.
- I don't think my sleeping position is different.
- We have a humidifier (assuming that's what you meant :)) so I'll be sure we've got that plugged in tonight. Even if that's it, again, I don't know why that would be so pronounced on Saturday rather than any other day of the week.
- And I've don't think I've been grinding my teeth - I've done it before and I've had jaw soreness the next day but that hasn't been the case recently.

If you have any other ideas, please let me know. I'll try a few things tonight since I'll be pretty bummed if I lose half of the weekend before Thanksgiving to a stupid headache.
posted by kat518 at 11:35 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Random suggestion but can you try a sleep mask? I need total darkness to sleep, and there have been times on the weekends when I've attempted to sleep in and eventually gotten up with a tension headache (I think from unconsciously scrunching my face a little to block out the increasing light). Just something to consider if you can't figure it out.
posted by lovableiago at 11:39 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

It could be my sinuses but wouldn't I have other sinus symptoms?

Not necessarily. All the gunk/congestion in your sinuses could be so packed up in there that it isn't anywhere else.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:48 AM on November 22, 2013

I tend to get "barometric headaches" that are related to changes in the weather. Sudden dips in temperature give me headaches, as do sudden drops in air pressure when a storm rolls in.

So, I get a nasty headache that lasts for the day. I also feel sleepy. I also feel morose and depressed.

It is getting worse as I age. My doctor has no clue about what is happening, but does recognize that it is happening. Typically Ibuprofen helps clear my head and relieve the symptoms. A pot cookie helped last weekend.

I am also overweight and have high blood pressure. I wonder if that is a connection.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:51 AM on November 22, 2013

I know of someone whose migraines were triggered by a release of tension--she'd be perfectly fine through a large, stressful project, but once it was over, boom, migraine. Could it be that the Saturday-morning migraine is a similar response to the end of your workweek?

Random suggestions: Too much sleep sometimes gives me migraines, as does sleeping on my back with a pillow that's too fat, so that my head is tilted too far forward. Some of my migraines are also triggered by tension headaches, and my doctor gave me a low-dose prescription of muscle relaxers to take the night before if I feel a tension headache coming on.

I also tend to get migraines on Fridays, as a result of small doses of sleep deprivation throughout the week catching up with me.
posted by telophase at 11:53 AM on November 22, 2013 [8 favorites]

Seconding what telophase said about the headaches being triggered by the release of tension. I get frequent tension headaches, often at the end of the work day when I'm relaxing at home. I remember a doctor saying once that the timing was not uncommon for tension heachaches.

Working out regularly (and vigorously) helped my heachaches in the long run.
posted by Shadow Boxer at 11:59 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

It could be my sinuses but wouldn't I have other sinus symptoms?

No. The next time you get a hedache, try taking Sudafed and if that works, excellent.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:02 PM on November 22, 2013

If I lie in bed too long in the mornings my neck gets stiff, leading to a tension headache then sometimes a migraine (tension headaches can cause migraines). Day: wasted. I naturally don't move around a lot when I sleep so it's just too much time in one place and the muscles seize up, and it's worse if I'm not fully asleep and thus not fully relaxed for those last few morning hours. So yeah, I don't sleep in too much on the weekends these days and instead have an afternoon nap. Which kind of sucks, I love seeping in late, but I love afternoon naps too so it balances out.

So I think it's worth you at least trying the get up fairly early thing given your sleep in is the main difference between a Saturday and a weekday. If you still end up with a headache you'll be back in bed soon enough anyway. Gentle stretching before you go to bed at night might also be good, both for reducing potential muscle tension and general stress relief. I hope you get it sorted, this doesn't sound fun for you at all.
posted by shelleycat at 12:17 PM on November 22, 2013

IANYD, but what you're describing sounds like a migraine to me: headache that won't abate, sensitivity to light, and nausea.

I had a friend whose migraines were specifically triggered by anticipation of relaxation. She'd get them on weekends, after completing final exams, and when she was about to leave for vacations.

When I get migraines, the best solution I've found is to take 4 ibuprofen liqui-gels at even the hint of one coming on. The earlier I can beat it back with a large dose of ibuprofen, the better my chance of it not coming on or being debilitating. Excedrin Migraine never worked as well for me.
posted by quince at 12:28 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

I had a similar situation a couple years ago, and realized that I was drinking significantly more water at work than I was when home on the weekends. My headaches were from dehydration. Once I realized that, I started intentionally drinking more water on weekends, and the headaches went away.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:39 PM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

As far as I know, if its a severe headache(yours are) with nausea and photo sensitivity (absent a brain tumor or meningiits or something) it's a migraine.
I get them occasionally-and NEVER on a work day. Migraines are very strange that way.
-They are pretty reliably gone by noon.
The only thing that forstalls them is to take 3 ibuprofen at the first sign of an early morning headache.

Good luck.
posted by SLC Mom at 1:05 PM on November 22, 2013

You have what I've had for 30 years. I call them "sleep late headaches". Get up the same time on weekends and drink the usual caffeine and you won't have them.
posted by nogero at 1:42 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Slightly strange question : you don't work with any chemicals or anything do you? I get weird headaches sometimes related to a hazardous chemical that we work around. I have had others tell me they get "withdrawal" headaches on the weekends.
posted by Quincy at 2:17 PM on November 22, 2013

This doesn't fit your description exactly, but from my own experience: I get headaches from sleeping in too late, but I also get sinus headaches every few weeks, and there have been periods in my life where they would appear basically every Friday. I usually take advil cold and sinus (ibuprofen + pseudoephedrine) but Sudafed or anything with pseudoephedrine should do the trick.
posted by ropeladder at 2:57 PM on November 22, 2013

Just noting that migraines can be triggered by changes in sleep and can manifest with sinus stuff. ( I was diagnosed with migraines by an allergist I was seeing for my "sinus headaches", which turned out to be migraines. A vasoconstrictor clears up the headache and the stuffiness.)
posted by data hound at 2:57 PM on November 22, 2013

A lot of people have migraines that they think are not migraines, either because they assume that migraines have one single profile that is unlike their headaches or because they assume that there are limited migraine triggers. My migraines - severe, worsening with age - are triggered by changes in air pressure. For years, I thought they were just headaches because I didn't get an aura and I'd never heard of weather as a trigger (it's actually really common). Getting diagnosed and getting a prescription has changed my life.

Honestly, if it's only been two Saturdays, you could be looking at weather headaches and coincidence. Maybe one day was sunny and one rainy, etc, but if the air pressure was changing rapidly, that can trigger a headache. Mine can come on very early when I wake up, too.

I get nausea and light-sensitivity. Those "Excedrin-migraine" formulas? They do nothing for me. You might try taking a larger-than-normal dose (my doctor, years ago, recommended four ibuprophens instead of two) right the minute you start to feel the headache - that used to work for mine two times out of three until a few years ago. IANAD of course.
posted by Frowner at 3:17 PM on November 22, 2013

This sounds like a classic migraine, my mother and I always get them on our first day off. Oliver Sacks wrote about this phenomenon in his book, Migraine.

The good news is that if you have only had this for a couple of weeks, it is probably an anomaly.
posted by nanook at 3:21 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Thirding telophase's idea about tension headaches. This is surprisingly common, and can also run in families (my parents used to both get it when they were in school. Every Saturday morning, they felt like were almost hungover, despite not drinking. I also often get it). You are just a bit tense during the week, and once you sleep in and your body lets go, it hurts.

For management, I found the following useful:
- When I am absolutely exhausted, I try to prep for a possible headache. I'm much more likely to get a headache after an exhausting week.
- regular sleeping patterns
- blackout curtains for weekends (usually, having sunlight to wake me up is better)
- Using medication when it gets too much. If you are in the UK, pick up Migraleve and/or Syndol. They are *the best*, imo. They do use codeine, so use sparingly/carefully. Paracetamol/ibuprofen with caffeine has been shown to be effective.
- It sounds like you are in the US, so it might be worth going to see a doctor. They can prescribe stronger stuff for you, so that you have it when you need it.
- establishing a wind down routine on Friday nights, and an ease in routine on Saturday. It helps create scaffolding for when I don't feel 100%, to help me through
- Sleep with a scarf. This sounds silly, but when I sleep in, I often crick my neck slightly. The scarf keeps things loose and warm, but also gives support. Don't know if it is just a placebo, but I like it.
posted by troytroy at 3:34 PM on November 22, 2013

My cousin had terrible migraines (and some other issues) and they finally discovered she is allergic to chocolate.

But my sister had something even more similar. She was getting headaches like clockwork every weekend. She couldn't pinpoint any trigger. Then she finally broke up with her boyfriend, and the headaches went away. They were totally stress-induced, and of course she was around him more on weekends. When she no longer had that stressor in her life, the headaches went away.
posted by catatethebird at 3:45 PM on November 22, 2013

I've had the same problem, and it's either been lack of coffee or dehydration. I found that they wouldn't go away on their own, but one pain reliever dose works and doesn't need to be repeated.
posted by 445supermag at 6:35 PM on November 22, 2013

For me it's differences in my morning routine on weekdays/weekends that gave me weekend headaches: on a weekday morning, I'm up and about and getting ready for work. On the weekends, I would pretty much just grab a cup of coffee and sit down on the couch in my typical horrible couch-sitting posture and it would be like all the sleep-relaxed muscles and discs in my spine settled into their daily positions all wrong while I was sitting poorly and boom, instant day-long tension headache and back pain. Stopped happening when I made the effort to make sure I'm on my feet for a good half hour each morning.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:31 PM on November 22, 2013

For some people, the release of stress (such as not having to work) can cause migraines in certain situations, which may be why getting up to do something in the morning can help stave them off.
posted by thebestsophist at 12:36 AM on November 23, 2013