The holiday season traditionally becomes a time of cheer, friends, family, and for some unfortunate few, increased headaches. While the exact causes of what can trigger headaches remain a mystery, more people have reported spikes in headaches or migraines during this time of year. But is there a correlation between increased stress and your migraines during the holiday season?
Potential Migraine Triggers
Before you can blame your holiday headaches on the holidays and search for a chiropractor specializing in migraines, you need to know what some of the most common triggers are. Understanding what these triggers are can help you identify if the uptick is associated with the season or if there is an underlying cause you may have missed that may be the root of your issues.
Some of the most common migraine triggers include:
- Increased Stress
- Interruptions in Sleep Schedule
- Unbalanced Hormones
- Increased Alcohol and Caffeine Intake
- Radical Weather Changes
- Poor Diet or Skipping Meals
- Dehydration
- Too Much Light
- Overly Strong Smells
- Using Too Much of a Specific Medication
Some of these triggers can be traced back to sudden changes in your life, not taking proper care of yourself, or any number of other factors. However, the holidays can contribute to these triggers and make you more prone to suffering from a migraine if you aren’t careful.
Holiday Related Stress
No matter the kind of headache you suffer from, stress has long been considered one of the most common and logical triggers for these headaches. We place ourselves under stress throughout the year with work and family commitments; however, the holiday season has a way of making that infinitely worse.
The stress of getting the perfect gifts for your loved ones, meeting end of the year deadlines at work, and ensuring that your in-laws are perfectly happy and content when they visit can all contribute to increased stress levels. While you may always put extra pressure on yourself during the holidays, finding ways to lessen the stress can help you stay ahead of holiday-related migraines.
Irregular Sleep Patterns
Having a consistent sleep schedule can keep you properly regulated throughout your life and enables you to recharged for the next day’s challenges. With your increased commitments, desire to keep everyone happy, and work obligations, you may start to suffer from a lack of sleep during the holidays.
Not getting enough sleep has been linked as a potential headache trigger for people. If you can’t fall asleep or have trouble staying asleep, your system doesn’t get the rest it needs and can begin presenting itself as a headache. Making a concentrated effort to sleep regularly and get a set number of hours can help eliminate lack of sleep as a headache trigger during the holidays.
Overdoing It on the Coffee
Your lack of sleep can quickly start a feedback loop where you don’t get enough sleep the night before and begin to counteract the lack of sleep with more coffee. The increased caffeine intake can provide you with the energy boost you need to make it feel like you have extra time to do everything on your to-do list, but overdoing it can become a real problem.
Whether you use artificial sweeteners or take your coffee black, the amount of caffeine in your few daily cups of coffee could be sabotaging your headaches this holiday season. Try to limit your caffeine intake during the holidays and see if the amount of migraines you typically get goes down or stays the same.
Can Chiropractic Care Help With My Holiday Headaches?
While Community Chiropractic Center can’t help you deal with your visiting in-laws driving you up a wall, we can help address your physical headache triggers and keep you pain-free during the holiday season. Schedule an appointment with one of our expertly trained chiropractors, and we can start addressing the underlying physical causes of your headaches!
The post Do You Actually Get More Headaches During the Holidays? appeared first on Community Chiropractic Center.