Dehydration headache at work: what it feels like and what helps

A dehydration headache usually feels like a dull, steady ache rather than a sharp or stabbing one. It can sit across the whole head or at the front, back or sides, it often gets worse when you bend down, turn your head or stand up, and it tends to arrive with thirst, a dry mouth or darker urine. If water is the cause, it usually eases after a drink and some rest, though not always within minutes.

At a desk, though, the headache that turns up at 3 PM rarely has a single cause. A morning of coffee and no water, a late lunch, eyes that have been on a screen since breakfast and shoulders up around your ears can all arrive together. What follows is general information, not a diagnosis.

What does a dehydration headache feel like?

People describe it in fairly similar ways:

• A dull, pressing ache, not a sharp pain.
• Anywhere on the head. Some feel it all over, others at the front or the back.
• Worse with movement. Bending to pick something up, turning your head quickly or climbing stairs can make it pulse.
• Other signs alongside it. Thirst, a dry or sticky mouth, urine darker than usual, tiredness, sometimes feeling lightheaded when you stand.

That last point is the useful one. A headache on its own tells you very little. A headache that arrives with the plain signs of being low on fluids is a much better hint. Signs you are not drinking enough water at work goes through those signs and what each one can and cannot tell you.

Researchers don't fully understand why going short on water brings on a headache in some people and not in others, and much of the research on it is small. Some people notice it reliably every time they forget to drink. Others notice nothing until they are very thirsty.

Why does it show up in the middle of the afternoon?

The mid-afternoon headache is a desk classic, and the timing makes sense once you add up the day.

• Water stopped at breakfast. Many people have coffee in the morning and nothing else until lunch, if then.
• Focus mutes thirst. A busy morning pushes mild thirst into the background, so you don't notice how long it has been.
• Lunch was late or never happened. Going a long time without food is a common headache trigger in its own right.
• The morning coffee is wearing off. If you had less caffeine than usual today, or had it later, withdrawal can bring on a dull headache that water won't fix.
• Your eyes have done a long shift. Eye strain builds through the day with close work.
• Your shoulders crept up. Tension in the neck and shoulders tends to build by the afternoon, especially after long calls.
• The air is dry. Air conditioning and heating dry you out a little faster without you feeling hot or sweaty.

None of these rules out the others. Many 3 PM headaches are two or three of them at once, which is why a glass of water sometimes clears it and sometimes doesn't touch it. Water and the afternoon slump looks at the wider afternoon dip and what else feeds it.

Is it dehydration, eye strain or tension?

You can't tell for certain from the inside, and this is not a way to diagnose a headache. But what comes with it is a decent clue about what to try first.

The NHS describes a tension-type headache as a constant ache on both sides of the head, and many people say it feels like a tight band. That two-sided squeeze is the main thing that sets it apart. An eye strain headache tends to build with screen time and fade with rest. A dehydration headache is the one most likely to come with thirst. If yours sounds more like the eye kind, eye strain headache covers where it hurts and what helps.

Migraine is different again: often one-sided and throbbing, with sensitivity to light or sound and sometimes nausea. Not drinking enough is often listed among possible migraine triggers. If your headaches look like that, a doctor can help you work out a plan that fits you.

What to try first

When the headache starts, a short routine covers the most likely causes at once.

1. Drink a glass of water at a normal pace. There is no need to gulp down a liter. Then keep sipping over the next hour.
2. Eat something if you have gone hours without food.
3. Look away from the screen. Find something far off, a window if you have one, and blink slowly a few times. Give your eyes a few minutes, not a few seconds.
4. Drop your shoulders and unclench your jaw. Circle your shoulders slowly backward and let your head sit over them, not in front of them.
5. Step away. A short walk, ideally somewhere with daylight and fresher air, helps several of the causes at once.
6. Notice what worked. If the headache fades after water and food, that is a useful clue for tomorrow.

If you take a painkiller for headaches, follow the label and ask a pharmacist if you are unsure which one suits you. Taking painkillers on many days a month can itself cause headaches, which doctors call medication overuse headache. So regular headaches are a reason to see a doctor, not to keep a packet in the desk drawer.

How to stop the afternoon headache coming back

Most of the prevention happens in the morning, long before the headache.

• Have a glass of water with the first coffee, so the day doesn't start dry.
• Keep a full bottle where you can see it. A glass behind the monitor gets forgotten.
• Drink when a call ends. Back to back meetings are where water quietly disappears from a day.
• Eat a real lunch at roughly the same time each day.
• Keep caffeine steady. Big swings, such as lots on weekdays and none at the weekend, can set off withdrawal headaches.
• Rest your eyes and shoulders through the day, not only once it hurts.

When to see a doctor

Most everyday headaches are not dangerous. But see a doctor if:

• Headaches keep coming back, or you get them on more days than not.
• Painkillers don't help, or you find yourself taking them often.
• A headache is getting worse over days or weeks.
• You feel thirsty all the time, or you drink plenty and still have signs of dehydration.

Get urgent medical help, calling your local emergency number if needed, for:

• A sudden, very severe headache, the worst you have ever had.
• A headache with a stiff neck, fever, a rash, confusion, weakness, numbness, slurred speech or changes in your vision.
• A headache after a blow to the head.
• Signs of severe dehydration, such as feeling very dizzy or confused, fainting, or not peeing all day.

Let the afternoon glass come to you

A headache is a late signal. The better fix is the glass at 11 AM and the one at 2 PM, the ones that get skipped because nothing prompted them. That kind of prompt is what Notchpals is for: a character drops out of your Mac's notch, asks, and goes away again. Water is covered by Puddle, Melo and Lolo (a seal pup, a watermelon and an axolotl). The one in your crew opens the day with a first-glass visit, returns a few times, and makes one visit between 2 and 5 PM, the stretch when the afternoon headache tends to start building.

PuddleMy flippers go all floppy this time of day. Water fixes it. Try!

Puddle is more certain about that than this page is. Notchpals has no idea whether you have a headache and can't see whether you drank: it trusts your Done. If your crew has an Eyes character as well (Blip comes with every copy), eye breaks turn up through the day too, which covers the eye strain side of the afternoon. And if the headaches keep coming however much you drink, take them to a doctor rather than to a character in the notch.