imbalance when getting out of bed?

Waking up feeling dizzy can be a disorienting and scary experience, but if it happens infrequently, there is probably no cause for concern. Occasional dizziness is very common, and there are several reasons why you may feel dizzy, woozy, or off-balance in the morning. However, if you frequently wake up with dizziness, it may be time to make an appointment with a doctor to rule out serious health concerns.

There are several forms of dizziness, including imbalance, lightheadedness or wooziness, vertigo, and dizziness related to anxiety or fear. Vertigo is a unique type of dizziness in that it includes a spinning or rotating component. You may experience any of these forms of dizziness when you wake up.

Physical therapy is an effective way to manage dizziness symptoms, regardless of the cause. The providers at FYZICAL are highly trained and have experience in helping people overcome dizziness and get their mornings back on track. Using evidence-based methods, our holistic therapies provide an effective strategy to minimize dizziness without the need for medications or surgical approaches.

Dizziness is not a disorder, but rather a symptom that can be caused by many things. For people who are experiencing dizziness when they wake up, dysfunction in the circulatory system or peripheral vestibular system may be the cause. Some medications can also cause morning dizziness, as can alcohol and recreational drugs. Even dehydration or low blood sugar can make you feel dizzy.

To understand dizziness that occurs when you wake up, it may be helpful to understand how our bodies keep us balanced under normal circumstances and where things can go wrong.

Without adequate blood flow, brain cells don’t receive the fuel they need, and you will feel dizzy or lightheaded. The circulatory system plays a crucial role in maintaining normal brain function. The brain is an energy-intensive organ, using about 25% of the oxygen you breathe and about 60% of the glucose (sugar) that you eat.

In some cases, there may be adequate blood flow but there is not enough oxygen or glucose to sustain brain function. Disorders like sleep apnea can prevent your brain from getting enough oxygen while you sleep, and going to bed on an empty stomach can cause low blood sugar-induced dizziness when you wake up. People with diabetes are at particular risk for low blood sugar that can lead to dizziness and pre-syncope (feeling like you’re going to faint) or syncope (fainting).

Most of us rarely think about the ear as anything other than our hearing organ, but the ear contains one of our most important balance organs, the peripheral vestibular system. There are three sections of the ear: the outer ear, which is made up of the ear lobe and the canal; the middle ear, which includes the bones of hearing and the Eustachian tube, which regulates pressure; and the inner ear, which is composed of the cochlea and the peripheral vestibular system.

The peripheral vestibular system also plays a role in maintaining proper blood flow. Because it senses your spatial orientation, it influences blood flow. When the brain receives signals that you have gone from lying down to standing up, for example, the cardiovascular system changes how it directs blood flow in order to accommodate your change in position.

The peripheral vestibular system plays a major role in helping us maintain consistent balance. The peripheral vestibular system is housed in the inner ear, and has two important components:

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The peripheral vestibular system of the inner ear sends information to the central vestibular system, which is located in the brain. Under normal circumstances, the brain integrates information from your peripheral vestibular system with information from other systems (visual, motor, sensory) about your movement, and you maintain balance and equilibrium. If the peripheral vestibular system is active when you aren’t moving, the brain receives mismatched information from the different systems, causing you to lose equilibrium.

Although dizziness can be caused by central vestibular system dysfunction, the majority of cases of dizziness are caused by abnormalities in the peripheral vestibular system. Physical therapy is an evidence-based treatment strategy that can treat inner ear disorders and provide long-term improvements to balance and equilibrium.

Waking up to a spinning room or without normal equilibrium is never a good way to start your day. There are a number of potential causes for waking up feeling dizzy, and many of them can be prevented with some simple lifestyle changes.

Dehydration is one of the most common reasons why people are dizzy when they wake up. When you’re dehydrated, you actually lose blood volume. This makes your blood pressure drop, resulting in insufficient delivery of oxygenated blood to the brain. This can make you feel dizzy when you are lying down, and the dizziness will worsen when you go from lying down to standing up.

A common factor in dehydration-related dizziness in the morning is alcohol. If you woke up dizzy and nauseous or in a room that was spinning after a night of imbibing, alcohol is a likely culprit.

In order to maintain normal function, the brain depends on a sugar called glucose for energy. When you eat, glucose is transported from your digestive system to your bloodstream and delivered to the brain. If you skip dinner, you may experience dizziness the next morning because your blood doesn’t have sufficient amounts of glucose to keep your brain working properly. Low blood glucose is also called low blood sugar or hypoglycemia.

Diabetes is a condition that affects blood glucose (sugar) levels. People with diabetes are missing an enzyme that allows glucose to get into the bloodstream, so diabetics have an increased risk for low blood sugar in the morning, which can lead to dizziness and fainting.

Anything that interferes with your breathing will reduce the amount of oxygen that gets to your brain, leaving you feeling dizzy or woozy. A common complaint among people with obstructive breathing conditions is, “I woke up in the middle of the night feeling dizzy.” While sleep apnea is the most common type of obstructive breathing condition, others include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma. Even having a common cold could interfere with normal breathing while you sleep.

If your morning dizziness sets in when you first sit up or get out of bed, you may be experiencing orthostatic (or postural) hypotension. This is a condition that is caused by inadequate blood flow to the brain and occurs when people get up too quickly after they have been sitting or lying down. Dizziness or lightheadedness related to orthostatic hypotension lasts for just a second or two, so if your dizziness is persistent, there is probably something else contributing to it.

Some medications are known to cause dizziness, and you may wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning feeling lightheaded or faint. Blood pressure medications like ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, and calcium-channel blockers can all cause dizziness. In addition, drug interactions may leave you feeling dizzy.

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV, is a disorder of the inner ear’s peripheral vestibular system. When we move, crystals in the inner ear activate tiny hair cells that send information about our movements to the brain. These are normally attached to a membrane so they can’t accidentally activate hair cells. Age-related degeneration or head trauma can cause these crystals to become detached, and they activate hair cells at inappropriate times. This signals to the brain that we are moving even when we’re not.

If you regularly experience vertigo when waking up, you may have BPPV. People with BPPV often get vertigo when they roll over in bed or turn their head. BPPV can also affect just one ear, which would cause dizziness only when you turn or roll to one side. BPPV-related vertigo lasts for 15-20 seconds, and BPPV can also cause lightheadedness, nausea and vomiting, nystagmus (rapid, involuntary eye movements), and fainting.

In most cases, occasionally waking up feeling dizzy is not a serious cause for concern. However, if you are regularly experiencing dizziness or vertigo when you wake up, it is recommended that you make an appointment with your doctor.

If your dizziness is accompanied by any of the following, seek immediate medical treatment:

For many people, drinking plenty of water, eating a healthy diet, and making sure to get some exercise to promote blood flow are sufficient to prevent dizziness. If you are taking prescription medications, ask your doctor whether they could be causing your dizziness.

One of the most effective ways to manage dizziness is physical therapy. Nearly all of the root causes of dizziness respond well to physical therapy, and providers who are experienced in treating dizziness can tailor an exercise plan to meet your needs.

The experts at FYZICAL are highly trained and skilled in treating different forms of dizziness. Our holistic, whole-body approach doesn’t depend on medications or surgery, and many people find that the benefits of physical therapy go beyond helping them overcome dizziness.

FYZICAL offers free assessments that can help you understand your dizziness and anxiety and create a tailored exercise program that will help you manage your symptoms. Find a FYZICAL location near you and make an appointment today.

To learn more about how FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers can help you, download our free e-book,or click on the button below to find your local clinic.

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is a common disorder of the inner ear with symptoms including dizziness, vertigo, unsteadiness and nausea.

BPPV is the most common cause of vertigo, especially in people over 65 years old.

BPPV occurs when crystals (called otoconia), normally located in one part of the vestibular (or balance) system of your inner ear (the utricle), become dislodged and collect in another part of the inner ear balance system (one of the semi-circular canals).

As your head moves, the dislodged crystals also move and incorrect messages are sent to your brain and then to your eyes.

The brain receives the messages that the head is moving although the head has only moved position slightly. This will cause symptoms such as an illusion of movement or spinning with common movements or changes in position such as rolling over in bed, getting in or out of bed, or looking or reaching up (for example to the top shelf or to put drops into your eye).

Activities that bring on BPPV symptoms vary from person to person.

Getting out of bed or rolling over in bed are movements that often trigger dizziness, vertigo, light-headedness, imbalance or nausea.

Some people feel dizzy when they tip their head back to look up.

Symptoms are usually intermittent, stopping for several weeks or months at a time and then coming back for a longer or shorter period.

Inside the inner ear is a series of canals filled with fluid. These canals are oriented at different angles. When the head is moved, the rolling of the fluid inside these canals tells the brain exactly how far, how fast and in what direction the head is moving. BPPV is thought to be caused by little calcium carbonate crystals (otoconia) coming loose within the canals. Usually, these crystals are held in special reservoirs within other structures of the inner ear (utricle). It is thought that injury or degeneration of the utricle may allow the crystals to escape into the balance system and interfere with the fluid flow. BPPV can be caused by:

There is also an association between BPPV and osteoporosis. However, in a large number of cases, there is no known cause.

Diagnosis of the condition may be made based on:

Other tests may be required in cases where symptoms do not fit the usual pattern or are in both ears, both of which make diagnosis more challenging.

BPPV can be treated with simple exercises, taught by a doctor or physiotherapist who is familiar with the techniques required. However, if symptoms persist and cause distress, you may be referred to a specialist.

BBPV is usually treated using a range of positional manoeuvres that aim to move the crystals out of the semi-circular canal of the inner ear to an area that will not stimulate the wrong messages to be sent by the balance system.

Sometimes a second treatment may be necessary. Your health professional can perform these manoeuvres in their rooms or they may give you exercises to perform at home.

If manoeuvres and exercises have been recommended, it is important to persist with the treatment because they provide a simple and non-invasive way to treat the vertigo and nausea associated with BPPV.

BPPV can subside with time, but it is important to seek treatment in the early stages to prevent falls or injury. This is particularly important for older people when additional balance exercises may also be useful.

In extreme cases, surgery can be carried out to block the affected canal without disturbing the function of the rest of the vestibular system.

Very short-term use of motion sickness medications is sometimes useful to control the nausea associated with BPPV.

There are many different possible causes for dizziness — from an underlying medical condition to medication to a long night of having too much fun. In general, however, morning dizziness is something that occasionally happens to a lot of people and isn’t a big cause for concern.

If you’re dizzy in the morning right after you wake up, it could be a result of the sudden change of balance as your body adjusts from a reclining position to a standing one. Dizziness can occur when the fluid in your inner ear shifts, such as when changing positions quickly.

If you have a cold or sinus issues, you may notice the dizziness gets worse because you have excess fluid and swelling in your sinuses, which are linked to the inner ear.

Here are some other common issues that could lead to morning dizziness.

If you have sleep apnea or your partner has informed you that you snore a lot, your nighttime breathing patterns may be to blame for your morning dizziness.

Sleep apnea is actually an obstructive breathing condition, which means you temporarily stop breathing at night if you have it. Those interruptions in breathing can lead to lower oxygen levels, which could cause dizziness in the morning when you wake up.

One of the most common causes for waking up with dizziness is actually dehydration.

If you drink alcohol before bed, for example, you may be especially dehydrated when you wake up in the morning.

Even if you don’t drink any alcohol, you may get dehydrated if you work in a hot environment, don’t drink enough liquids, take diuretics, drink a lot of caffeinated beverages, or sweat a lot.

Waking up dizzy in the morning could also be a sign that you have low blood sugar, so you’re dizzy before you eat any food in the morning.

If you have diabetes and take insulin or other medications, you can become hypoglycemic in the morning if you don’t eat enough the night before or if your medication dose is too high.

You can be hypoglycemic even if you don’t have diabetes, too. If you regularly experience periods of dizziness, fatigue, or feeling sick and weak in between meals or snacks, talk to your doctor to be tested for hypoglycemia.

If you’re taking any regular medications, they may be the culprit behind your morning dizziness.

Talk to your doctor about what side effects your current medications might have and if your prescribed medication is the cause. There may be a solution, like taking your medicine at a different time, that could help.