Seriously: relaxing helps you beat tension headaches

Prevention gives you independence

Headaches are some of the most disabling conditions of all. Nearly everyone gets a headache at some point, but some people get them all the time and their quality of life suffers as a result. Migraine and tension-type headaches alone account for about 92% of primary headache disorders. Preventive measures can significantly reduce or even eliminate both types of headache, as well as helping to minimize medication use.

Feeling helpless against headaches adds to the pain and worsens the burden for many people. Knowing that you can do something about your headaches helps give you back a sense of control. For sustainable headache prevention, managing your personal stress levels is crucial. Stress is a major trigger for both migraines and tension headaches. If stress continues for a prolonged period of time, headaches can become a chronic condition.

Combat your stress with PMR

Progressive muscle relaxation is all about learning to relax your entire body and enter a state of deep relaxation, making you significantly better at coping with stress. The deliberate tensing and relaxing of different muscle groups also improves your body awareness, which can lead to greater mindfulness toward your body. Many people struggle with stress at work – a classic gateway for tension headaches. To integrate PMR easily into daily life, PreventHeadache offers a ten-minute version that’s easy to fit in during a break at work or after work. (Find it on the PreventHeadache app and website). PMR helps you head off the pain by removing the stress that fuels your headaches.

Effective and easy to use: studies prove it

Progressive muscle relaxation gained traction in the 1970s as a way to prevent migraines. A major study in 1980 found that the method is effective for tension headaches, too – particularly so, in fact. The results showed an almost 60% reduction in headache symptoms in the PMR group versus the control group (participants who did not practice PMR).

Another study in 1982 confirmed PMR’s effectiveness in preventing tension headaches, showing more than a 50% reduction in symptoms. Differences this large indicate a “clinically significant” result, meaning that patients who use the technique are very likely to experience a dramatic improvement.

American scientist Ruth Hyman’s research team compared multiple studies investigating the impact of relaxation techniques to combat health problems in many areas. Meditation and PMR were found to be the most effective techniques. Hyman’s comparison shows that PMR is especially effective in treating and preventing headaches and high blood pressure across a wide age range, with students, working professionals, and older adults all reporting benefits (see last paragraph).

PMR also aids sleep

More recently, a 2021 study sheds light on the effect of PMR and breathing exercises on chronic tension headaches. At the start of the survey, all the patients said their headaches were severely interfering with their lives. Since the subjects also reported significant sleep problems because of their headaches, the study also measured the impact of the techniques on sleep quality. It has long been known that headaches and sleep problems often go together, with each worsening the other. Those affected find this combination particularly distressing. Insufficient sleep is a classic headache trigger. In turn, severe headaches cause sleep problems, creating a vicious cycle that can be devastating.

At each assessment point during the PMR program (4, 8 and 12 weeks), participants reported a significant reduction in both the severity and frequency of their headaches. Sleep quality was rated poor by everyone at the start of the study. After three months, 97% of the control group were still reporting poor sleep quality, whereas this figure was halved in the group practicing PMR – indicating a significant improvement in this area too.

PMR helps young and old

Support for the idea that PMR can be used to prevention tension headaches in nearly every age group was provided by a study conducted at a Texas pain center in the late 1980s. In this study, subjects with an average age of 69 who had been suffering from recurring headaches for over a decade participated in an eight-week PMR training program. A survey conducted three months after completing the exercises revealed that more than two-thirds of the participants reported at least a 50% reduction in their symptoms. Although there is still a significant need for research in this area in relation to the older generation, it is reasonable to assume that PMR can also provide valuable support in preventing tension headaches in older adults too.