It can be difficult to get through the day without everyone’s go-to legal stimulant if you have ever tried to cut back or quit drinking caffeine or if you have ever been late and forgot to stop for your regular morning cup of coffee or caffeinated tea. You can experience unusual irritability or difficulty staying awake and concentrating on your work.
There are situations when going without the caffeine fix you need to get through the day can give you a pounding headache. Caffeine headaches are notorious for making already unpleasant days even worse, as everyone who has experienced one knows. We looked over the data and talked to a physician to determine the reason of the pain and the best way to treat a caffeine headache because we did not think anyone should have to cope with that.
Peakvoyages | jetsetrover | trekking-tracks | roam-rapture | oceansailings
What effects does caffeine have on you?
Although a large number of people—roughly 80 to 90 percent of individuals in North America—consume caffeine regularly for a variety of purposes, the popular stimulant is most well-known for its capacity to efficiently keep users awake and focused. According to family medicine specialist Laura Purdy, MD, who practices in Miami, “[Caffeine] stimulates activity in your central nervous system.” “It can also lift your spirits, give you clarity, and increase your sense of productivity.”
In other words, when taken in low to moderate doses (from 30 to 400 mg per day—or no more than around three cups of coffee a day), caffeine can actually be beneficial, notably for enhancing alertness, mood, and cognition.
Why does caffeine give you a headache?
Caffeine can actually cause jitters and headaches in certain folks. However, in this context, “caffeine headache” more accurately describes the pounding, throbbing pain that can accompany caffeine withdrawal. The symptoms that a frequent, daily caffeine user—even if they only drink one cup of coffee or tea a day—experiences when they cut back on their caffeine intake are referred to as caffeine withdrawal. One of the most typical signs of caffeine withdrawal is headaches, which also include exhaustion, weariness, a loss in energy and alertness, and trouble focusing.
According to a Cleveland Clinic article, registered dietitian Beth Czerwony, RD, LD, says, “Your body is truly going through withdrawal symptoms, as if you were coming off of any other medication.” “You are going to get jittery, irritated, and headachey because it affects the central nervous system.”
According to Purdy, the degree, timing, and length of these symptoms vary from person to person and are influenced by factors such as lifestyle choices, caffeine sensitivity and tolerance, and the amount of time since the stimulant was last used. “When [someone’s] daily caffeine intake is missing, symptoms of caffeine withdrawal can occur immediately, or over a few days, when caffeine is eliminated entirely from the body,” she says.
According to a resource from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Library of Medicine, caffeine headaches and other withdrawal symptoms typically start 12 to 24 hours after someone is last serving of caffeine, peak after 20 to 51 hours, and persist up to nine days. However, according to Purdy, caffeine headaches usually subside after a few hours.
Headaches and other symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are more common when someone tries to stop using the stimulant all at once, or cold turkey, as opposed to reducing their intake gradually. “If you usually consume a big amount of anything every day, it is not advisable to stop everything at once because your body will react,” Purdy says. “This increases the likelihood of having a caffeine headache.”
How to End a Headache From Caffeine
- Take a small amount of caffeine.
Providing your body with the caffeine it craves is the quickest and most efficient approach to rid yourself of a caffeine headache. (In fact, since caffeine seems to help widen blood vessels in the brain, many doctors advocate ingesting coffee to assist relieve a headache, regardless of whether the pain is being caused by withdrawal from the stimulant.) Try something somewhat less caffeinated, such black tea, green tea, or even a small amount of dark chocolate, if you are trying to limit your caffeine intake.
However, here are some alternative methods to try to relieve your caffeine headache if reaching for coffee is out of the question or if you are genuinely trying to reduce or give up dependency:
- Take an over-the-counter analgesic.
According to Purdy, acetaminophen and ibuprofen, two over-the-counter pain medications, work well for treating caffeine headaches as well. But, since many of these drugs do contain caffeine, you should carefully read the label if you are trying to cut off caffeine completely. Although using caffeine-containing painkillers may probably stop your headache, you should be aware that doing so will make you more dependent on the stimulant.
- Make sure you are getting enough water.
It is not unexpected that drinking water is widely promoted as a foolproof method to end a caffeine headache, given the pervasive (but false) notion that it is a miracle remedy for almost any health or wellness-related problem. Although there is not much scientific evidence to support the idea that drinking water or receiving intravenous hydration can help with caffeine withdrawal symptoms, the real benefits of these methods are probably related to preventing or treating dehydration-induced headaches and giving your body the water it needs to function, rather than “flushing” any leftover caffeine out of your system.
- Sip on a decaf coffee cup.
Researchers at the University of Sydney discovered in a recent small study that after consuming decaffeinated coffee, individuals’ symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, including headaches, improved. After going without coffee for a whole day and rating their withdrawal symptoms, 61 strong coffee consumers (those who consume three or more cups daily) were divided into three groups. After 45 minutes, participants were asked to rate their symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. Two groups received decaf coffee and one group was given water. One group was informed that the other group was drinking regular coffee.
Llew Mills, PhD, a senior research associate at the University of Sydney’s School of Addiction Medicine and the study’s primary author, stated in a news release that “the group we lied to reported a substantial decline in caffeine withdrawal even though there is no physiological reason why it should.” “They anticipated a decline in their withdrawal, and that is exactly what happened. Put otherwise, a placebo effect.
The results of the study, which were intriguingly published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in January 2023, show that while the group given only water experienced no improvement, the group who knew they were getting decaf also reported a decrease in withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches.
In the end, Mills and the other study authors came to the conclusion that decaf coffee can have the same effect without the caffeine because people often identify coffee’s taste and aroma with the reduction of withdrawal symptoms. Nevertheless, it is critical to remember that this is a single, tiny study, and that more investigation is required. However, it might be worth a try to have a cup of decaf coffee if nothing else seems to be helping.