We think the best cure for headaches is new cute shoes, but xPurpleElephants has some other ideas. —Sparkitors
It's summer, and life couldn’t get more relaxed.
But suddenly, you feel something strange. Slightly nervous and very alert, you continue doing whatever it was you consider a worthy summertime activity—catapulting cupcakes at strange people, trying to beat the record of world’s longest blink, or sitting on your bed, staring at your fingernails. Suddenly, a chill makes its way up your spine, creeping and crawling, grabbing each vertebrae as it goes, and then, BAM! You abruptly know what a few thousand sledging sledgehammers feel like inside your head.
You have it. A summer headache. It’s completely throwing you off your groove. You can’t concentrate, you can’t be witty, you can’t even roll your eyes! It’s miserable. Sometimes, a good dose of drugs (no, mom, I mean Advil, not ACTUAL drugs. Yes, I was kidding. No, I won’t do that anymore. Can I continue?) can cure that pounding, but other times it just won’t cut it.
The suffering can end here, though, if you figure out why your body decided it needed to send you a painful message in the first place. Consider the following...
1. Sleep
WHOO! IT’S SUMMER! WE’RE GONNA STAY UP ALL NIGHT AND NOT GET ANY SLEEP AND STARE AT THE COMPUTER ALL NIGHT LONG AND—ooowwwww. That painful cacophony of sounds around you aren’t actually that loud, you've just got a headache. And that pounding in your head probably feels exactly like a hangover.
Lack of sleep can affect many aspects of your life. If you’re getting five or fewer hours of sleep every night, the strain it causes your body can show up in the form of a headache. The first step is to at least attempt to get to bed earlier. Turn off your computer an hour before bed and read a book. It’s proven that people who do this fall asleep more quickly and easily than those who are around electrical appliances, such as phones or TVs, right until they go to bed. Once you start getting more sleep, those headaches should start to go away.
Likeliness to Work: 9 cups out of 10
2. Caffeine Withdrawal
It’s possible, because I’ve experienced it. Remember those all-nighters you pulled during the school year, when you’d drink double the amount of coffee or caffeinated drink than usual? What if you did this daily? Those five cups you were so used to drinking have suddenly come back to haunt you—in the most unpleasant way possible. Whether you’ve just stopped drinking in the morning, or have switched to something healthier that doesn't stunt your growth, like tea, the sudden drop in caffeine can actually cause headaches and migraines.
If this sounds familiar, here's a solution: Don't eliminate your caffeine intake altogether; cut it in half. If you used to have two cups of coffee, try drinking one every morning for a week, then half a cup every morning, until you can wean yourself off entirely.
Likeliness to work: 8.5 cups out of 10
3. Vitamins
Ever since my parents stopped giving me gummy vitamins, I’ve been on strike about taking regular, grown-up vitamins. Now the consequences may be revealing themselves as little hammers that dance around in my head.
Vitamins are especially important for vegans and vegetarians. If you’re lacking an important, big-wig vitamin that plays a large part in your body, such as iron, it can result in a headache. This also happens if you regularly skip meals, such as breakfast, which is a BIG no-no.
If you don’t have vitamins, talk to your parents about getting some, and bring up the headaches so they can understand that lack of nutrients are making you miserable. If you have them, start taking the recommended dose. Note that it may take a while to see results.
Likeliness to work: 7 cups out of 10
It’s Not Any of These:
If none of these situations and tips help you, it could be for one of three reasons: dehydration, aliens that are small enough to fit inside your head and rearrange your nerves so they can take control over your body and steal stuff like the Krabby Patty secret formula, or the Declaration of Independence, or the Crown Jewels of England and, *ahem* ...Or it could be genetic. Ask your parents if your family has history of headaches and migraines, or ask to see a doctor about them if they won’t go away. Sometimes, it really is just genetic, and the right medication can help.
Do you get headaches? Migraines? Any advice?
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