5 Daily Habits to Prevent Headaches

Headaches are a real pain in the noggin. The good news is that there are habits that can help prevent headaches from occurring. By the end of this writing, you will have an understanding of 5 different habits that you can instill into your life today to increase your chances of getting through the day pain-free from headaches. There are many factors that play into health and headaches, so incorporating the following habits into your life does not guarantee you will never experience a headache. Incorporating them simply increases your odds of experiencing more “good days.” Here are 5 daily habits to prevent headaches.

The first habit that will help prevent headaches and help you feel better overall as well is sleep. Everybody knows we should sleep daily, but how much? How can you improve your sleep? It’s recommended to get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Now that means actually being asleep and not simply lying in your bed. Not only do you want to achieve 7-9 hours of sleep per night, but it’s also to your benefit to have a routine sleep schedule where you go to sleep and wake up roughly at the same time each day. Plus or minus 30-60 minutes would be great consistency. What that may look like is going to sleep at 10 pm and waking up at 6 am Mon-Friday and then on the weekends going to sleep prior to 11:00 pm and waking up at 7:00 am or earlier.

The second habit that will help prevent headaches and also help you feel better overall is regular exercise. Aim for 30-60+ minutes of exercise 3-5+ days per week. This will help to increase the blood flow throughout your entire body, which will subsequently help to clear cellular waste in your brain. Cellular waste is something that everybody has. It’s very hard if not impossible to avoid it but you can help your body be efficient and effective at clearing it out.

The third habit that will help prevent headaches is to eat meals that are nutritious and on a regular basis. This will help provide your body and brain with the energy it needs to carry out daily functions such as clearing cellular waste mentioned in the previous habit. In this blog, we won’t cover the specifics of what constitutes a nutritious meal, as that has many layers. Plus, it is very individualistic, so it would be unfair to say only one type of meal is the way to go. Dietary needs are affected by your personal goals and lifestyle. If you would like a blog post that is a more in-depth look at healthy eating, reach out to Freedom Physical Therapy to let us know, and we will get to work on that!

The fourth habit that will help prevent headaches is to manage your stress. Oh boy, not another thing on stress. Properly managing your stress doesn’t mean that you never experience stress. Rather, the goal should be being able to navigate through the highs and lows of life while being able to acknowledge it. There are many ways to help with stress management and relaxation, including but not limited to breathwork, journaling, exercise, music, and artwork.

The fifth habit to help prevent headaches pertains to posture. As posture has the ability to develop unnecessary stress while maintaining certain positions for prolonged periods. This can lead to trigger point formation. Trigger points can be a player in causing headaches and referring pain in the head, among other areas of the body, depending on which muscles are housing the trigger points. If you believe your posture could use an analysis or improvement, we have skilled therapists here at Freedom Physical Therapy who would be able to provide an individual assessment. An effective method that has been shown to be safe for treating trigger points is dry needling. So, if you are interested in receiving dry needling, whether you are dealing with headaches or other body symptoms, feel free to come visit us at one of our Freedom Physical Therapy locations – Mukwonago, Fox Point, Grafton, and Brookfield.

There you have it – 5 habits that you can implement into your day today to help promote more good days. Again, incorporating these habits doesn’t mean that you will be immune to bad days. It simply increases your odds of having a good day, as these habits are health-promoting ones that will help with more than just headaches. As always, enjoy more Freedom! Feel free to come visit us at one of our Freedom Physical Therapy locations – Mukwonago, Fox Point, Grafton, and Brookfield.