What is snoring? Snoring is the sound someone makes while sleeping when the soft tissues in their throat, mouth and the tongue vibrate due to their airway being restricted or blocked. It is estimated that more than 40 percent of men and nearly 30 percent of women between 30 and 60 years of age snore.
Snoring has been associated with several other issues to include obesity, nasal congestion, enlarged tonsils or adenoids and abnormal facial construction. Snoring is also a very annoying problem for both the snorer and anybody else within hearing distance of the snorer. Many people who snore seem to wake up every morning with a headache, so the question arises, can snoring cause headaches? The answer is yes, in some cases.
Snoring is said to cause chronic headaches in some cases
If you have a headache at least 15 days out of every month, it is considered to be chronic headaches. People who snore regularly have been found to be more likely to have these type of headaches, as well as suffer from insomnia. Exactly what kind of headaches are connected to this issue?
Chronic headaches can fall into several categories, including tension headache, hemicrania continua (headache on one side of the head), migraine, and headaches combined with nausea. A 2003 study showed that folks who suffered with headaches every day were more likely to also snore.
One done a few years later that appeared in the Journal of Headache and Pain revealed that migraine sufferers were 5x more likely to be folks with sleep disturbance issues like snoring.
Sleep Apnea
Some snorers suffer from a dangerous condition known as sleep apnea which causes them to periodically stop breathing while sleeping.
Due to this, their sleep gets interrupted several times throughout the night, which ends up contributing to causing them to get headaches.
Sleep apnea commonly happens to people who are overweight, have hypertension and to men over 65.
A different study which appeared in the journal Cephalalgia, revealed the discovery of a vital link between migraines and snoring.
The researchers studied 268 habitual snorers, and found one in four woke up every morning with a headache.
Once they were treated with a CPAP machine, which stands for continuous positive airway pressure, it helped the snoring, along with the insomnia and stopped their headaches.
Other studies on headaches and snoring
A National Institute on Aging study found that people who had chronic headaches were 2x more likely to be snorers and that in many cases they also had sleep apnea.
In the study, over 200 people who suffered from chronic headaches were compared to more than 500 people who sometimes had headaches.
Twenty-four percent of the ones with chronic headaches also snored all the time, while only 14 percent of the occasional headache sufferers were people who snored.
The problem though was that they couldn’t conclude if the headaches were caused by the snoring or vice versa, since headaches can cause someone’s sleep to be broken up and if they take pain medication, some forms of pain medication are known to aggravate snoring. It seems to be an endless cycle. Either way, it still shows that there is a connection between snoring and headaches.
It is also known that sleep deprivation can be caused by a person waking themselves up by snoring, and once again they can get headaches due to this happening. Plus, if someone has problems sleeping at night, then their body could also be holding excess carbon dioxide, which is also known to cause headaches.
Another thought is that the sound of snoring could trigger headaches in the snorer. Or that the snorer has some sort of neck restriction, which also could trigger headaches. Women were found to be more often who suffered from the headaches, as well as people who suffered from insomnia. Additionally, over 40 percent of the people suffering from chronic headaches also suffered from anxiety or depression, compared with 26 percent who only had headaches occasionally.
Types of headaches possibly aggravated or caused by snoring
Tension headache — Tension is something that many snorers have loads of since they may be arguing with their bed partner about their problem, which in turn causes lack of sleep, and possibly tension headaches. A tension headache is felt as a pressure that constantly bears down on the person’s head with a feeling like a band is being tightened over their temples. This type of headache is known to be caused by emotional stress.
Sinus headache — Another cause for snoring could be stuffed up nasal passages, which is also known to trigger certain kinds of headaches. This kind of headache is called a sinus headache and it is usually there when the person wakes up every morning, and remains for several hours.
Vascular headache – This type of headache is caused by the person having excess carbon dioxide in the blood. This can happen to people with sleep apnea, which as stated before, is known to cause snoring. This is usually a type of migraine headache, and when people are given oxygen, many times the headache goes away.
Hypnic headache—This type of headache is a very rare disorder where a person gets frequent headaches while sleeping. It is known to be able to wake a person up even when they are sleeping soundly, and last for between 15 minutes and four hours.
Cluster headaches – This type of headache also happens while a person is sleeping. They are considered to be very painful and usually happen in the first hour after someone falls asleep. They are said to cause severe pain on, behind or around one eye. They can last between 20 minutes and three hours.
Connection between Sleeping, Headaches and Moods
When it comes to our brains, the same areas of the brain affect sleeping, headaches and moods. So, if a person has poor quality of sleep such as most snorers to, it increases the chances of developing headaches. An example is that many people with chronic migraines also have insomnia, as well as anxiety or depression.
If someone with these issues learns some behavior methods to improve their sleeping habits, and they begin to have more regular sleep patterns, it can help reduce their headaches. This could be as simple as establishing regular waking and sleeping times and getting at least seven or eight hours of sleep a night. While these may not always be related to snorers, it can indeed help the person have less headaches that happen either while sleeping or right after waking up from sleeping.
How to Treat the Problem
There is another issue in all this snoring and headache dilemma, which is how to treat the problem. If the snoring and the resulting headaches are thought to be caused by sleep apnea, the person can be treated with a CPAP or BIPAP machine, which will help to get them breathing again while they sleep.
While either machine has be shown to work in that respect, as well as to stop the snoring, results on whether it also stopped the headaches was mixed. So, if you are suffering from chronic headaches, and are known to be a snorer, it is likely a good idea to see a neurologist about the problem. Even so, while doctors regularly connect snoring with having sleep apnea, they don’t usually connect the resulting headaches with sleep disorders, so more research is still needed.
If a person snores due to other reasons besides sleep apnea, there are other accepted method of stopping the snoring, and thereby hopefully getting rid of the headaches. These may include:
- Change the position you sleep in – sleeping on the back can cause the tongue and soft palate to fall down and thereby restrict the airway. This can cause snoring. If you instead sleep on your back, this may prevent you from snoring.
- Lose Weight – Obesity can cause extra fat, which can also cause weight gain around the neck. This can squeeze the throat tissues, and thus also restrict the airway and cause snoring. So, losing weight can sometimes stop a person from snoring.
- Avoid Alcohol and Sedatives – Alcohol and sedatives relax the muscles in the throat and relax the tongue, which once again can cause the tissues to relax and drop down and restrict the airway, thus make a person snore. So, if you don’t use them then you may be able to stop snoring.
- Open up the Nasal Passages – If you can keep your nasal passages from getting clogged up, it may stop snoring. This can be down by wearing nasal strips or by taking antihistamines if the reason is due to allergies or a sinus infection.
- Get structural problems in the nose or facial area fixed—these things can cause snoring so if they can be repaired, it can help relieve snoring. Talk to your doctor for more information.
The bottom line is that snoring has been found to cause some kinds of headaches, although it isn’t known if the snoring is the only reason. Therefore, we can conclude that the answer to the question can snoring cause headaches, is at least partly true.