Six Surprising Headache Triggers ... and How to Fix Them

Everyone knows a sinus infection or a major work project can make your head throb. But headaches can also be triggered by seemingly innocuous everyday activities -- like sleeping in on Saturdays or cleaning your apartment. With so many culprits, it's no wonder that one in five women suffer from migraines and nearly half of women endure tension headaches. But if you think popping a pill is the only way to ease the symptoms, you're wrong. We consulted the experts, and they revealed some unexpected causes of headaches, as well as how you can stop the pain for good.

Trigger 1: Kicking back on the weekends

You put in 14-hour days Monday through Friday, only to wake up mid-morning on Saturday with pounding pain in your temples. "So many of my patients tell me that they can work all week in a high-stress environment without a problem, but the minute they start relaxing, they get a migraine," says Lisa Mannix, M.D., medical director of Headache Associates in Cincinnati. The reason? As tension dissipates, levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol and noradrenaline, decrease. This causes a rapid release of neurotransmitters, the nervous system's chemical messengers. These send out impulses to blood vessels, making them constrict and then dilate, in addition to releasing other pain-causing chemicals.

Head it off: Although it's tempting to sleep in on weekends, you're setting yourself up for trouble. In a survey conducted by the National Headache Foundation, 79 percent of headache sufferers reported that they wake up with a headache after snoozing for more than eight hours. Also, if you enjoy an 8 a.m. cup of joe during the week, try to have coffee at the same time on the weekend. Caffeine withdrawal also causes blood vessels to dilate, which can give you a "grande"-size headache.

You should try to factor decompression time into your work week, too. If you don't have a consistent fitness program, start one now, aiming for at least 30 minutes of exercise three times a week. One study found that this amount of activity reduces headache frequency by 50 percent. "Exercise buffers the effects of stress and releases endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, which help prevent the chemical changes that trigger a migraine," says David Buchholz, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University and author of "Heal Your Headache."

Also consider incorporating relaxation techniques into your schedule, such as meditation, yoga or biofeedback, which teaches you to control involuntary body responses like muscle tension and heart rate. Studies show that using these therapies, either alone or in combination, can improve symptoms in up to 80 percent of patients suffering from headaches, says Alexander Mauskop, M.D., director of the New York Headache Center.

Trigger 2: Self-treating your head pain

Taken too frequently (more than two or three times a week on a regular basis), the over-the-counter acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or naproxen you depend on to quell the throbbing may be hurting you instead of helping. It can cause rebound headaches, a condition estimated to affect 2 percent of all adults. "A woman may start taking pain relievers a few times a week to treat her tension headaches," says Alan Rapoport, M.D., clinical professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Soon the headaches become more frequent, so she starts taking these medicines more often. Before long, she has headaches every day."

These drugs affect the pain-control systems in the brain and can lower levels of the feel-good chemical serotonin, explains Rapoport. Young women also seem to be more susceptible than men: His research showed that about 75 percent of rebound-headache sufferers are women, most commonly in their 30s.

Head it off: Occasional use of over-the-counter medicine is fine, but be sure to follow the label instructions exactly. Taking a higher-than-suggested dose increases the odds of getting a rebound headache.

If you suspect that your pain is related to self-medicating, ask your primary-care physician to refer you to a headache specialist. The only solution is to stop taking your over-the-counter pills, a remedy that may be painful at first. "I wean patients off them gradually," says Merle Diamond, M.D., associate director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. "For example, if a woman is taking eight pills a day, I'll advise her to take six a day the following week, and four a day the week after that."

To help you through this withdrawal period, your doctor may prescribe temporary measures like triptans, a class of powerful migraine drugs that stimulate serotonin receptors, resulting in reduced inflammation and constriction of blood vessels in the head. The frequency and intensity of your headaches should improve in one to three weeks, but it may take up to three months before your brain's pain-control system returns to normal.