Hangover Headache: Treatments, Home Remedies, Causes, and Symptoms

Drinking alcohol, especially if you’re already dehydrated or becoming dehydrated, can make it harder to focus on certain tasks, react during situations, and make decisions. Headaches that won’t go away are alarming, but they usually aren’t serious. It’s important to discuss your symptoms with your doctor.

How to prevent future hangovers

If you have migraines, you’re at risk of migraine hangovers. Most people who have migraines also experience postdrome symptoms, but not everyone does. A migraine hangover feels similar to a traditional hangover, or the morning after a night of drinking a lot of alcohol. You’ll likely be tired and sore throughout your body.

You consistently feel hungover every time you drink.

A hangover is the feeling of illness that follows alcohol consumption. It begins as a person’s blood alcohol levels decrease after they stop drinking, and it can last for 24 hours or more. A hangover from alcohol, while unpleasant, is not ordinarily a medically dangerous condition. However, if you have persistent nausea/vomiting or are severely dehydrated, you may require urgent medical attention. The signs of persistent nausea/vomiting are feeling nauseated for many hours along with multiple episodes of vomiting in which you cannot keep down any fluids. Dehydration symptoms include dizziness, lightheadedness, fast heartbeat, irritability, and fainting.

Hangover remedies

Stop drinking completely when you’ve reached your limit (or before then). Drink water and eat food to dispel your hangover blues. This “rebound effect” interrupts deep, rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, which can make you feel much more tired the next day. Let’s look at how to tell the difference between a mild, temporary hangover that you can treat at home and one that may need some extra medical attention.

The solutions that might work to reduce your symptoms can vary from others who experience migraines. For healthy adults, moderate drinking means up to one drink a day for women of all ages and two drinks a day for men. A “drink” in this case is considered a 5-ounce glass of wine or 12 ounces of bee (5% alcohol, less for stronger beers, so be sure to read the label). Certain supplements and herbal remedies have been touted as hangover remedies, but there is no solid evidence backing up this claim. The more you drink, the more your heart will respond.

Migraine Hangover Treatment and Home Remedies

The name comes from an old folk tale that says the way to treat a dog bite is to cover the wound with hair taken from the dog that bit you. If you don’t already drink coffee regularly, don’t down a cup in hopes of relieving your hangover. An over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever will calm a pounding headache. Having too much alcohol at one time can lead to alcohol poisoning. If untreated, alcohol poisoning can have long-term consequences or may even result in death.

When should I see a doctor?

Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health. There’s no quick fix when it comes to hangovers, but there are several things you can do to make things more manageable as you wait it out. As we get older, our body’s ability to process toxins slows down. As a result, you might be down for the count on less alcohol (and for longer) than before.

Congeners are present in some alcoholic beverages, and can also cause or contribute to headaches. According to the how long does a hangover headache last National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), there is no scientific evidence to prove that hangover remedies work. The organization says the only way to cure a hangover is to wait until the toxic byproducts have cleared from the body.

Hangover: The Fastest Way to Cure It

In some instances, symptoms of a hangover can begin before the effects of alcohol have worn off. This is usually the result of very heavy alcohol intake or metabolic issues (such as liver or kidney failure). There are medications that treat and prevent migraines. However, one study found that for most people who suffer from postdrome, medications taken during a migraine do not affect duration of the postdrome phase. Postdrome is the 24- to 48-hour period that follows a migraine. Symptoms of postdrome can mimic those experienced during the prodrome phase.

• A person could take a pain reliever, such as aspirin or ibuprofen, as they would for any headache.
• How much you need to drink to cause a hangover depends on many factors.
• Let yourself recover completely from both the headache and the postdrome before you dive back into everything.
• People should generally avoid hangover cure myths, including “hair of the dog” and eating usually unpalatable food such as raw eggs.

• But there are things you can do, like staying hydrated, that can relieve the symptoms.
• If you want to avoid a hangover headache, the best thing you can do is think before you drink.
• The notion is that hangovers are a form of alcohol withdrawal, so a drink or two will ease the withdrawal.
• This “rebound effect” interrupts deep, rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, which can make you feel much more tired the next day.

But they can cause major health issues, especially if you are not in good health to begin with. These effects can begin while you are still drinking, and can last for longer than the typical effects of a hangover. Without medical treatment, you could fall, lose consciousness, or develop health complications due to the delayed effects of alcohol. If you get frequent migraines and experience migraine postdrome, talk to a healthcare professional about treatment options. The most important thing to consume while you are recovering from a hangover is liquid, in order to avoid further dehydration.