I used to have poor office posture and headaches would occur multiple times a month. But headaches are common among everyone, not just desk workers. So does that mean poor posture causes headaches? Regardless, bad computer posture can definitely lead to increased risk of muscle tension and head pain.
I’m not interested in how to relieve headaches once they’ve already started. I mean, that’s good info to have. But I want to get more down to the bottom of the cause. How can I prevent sitting position headaches before they happen? And why were my headaches always happening around the same time of afternoon? It wasn’t a coincidence that I’d been sitting at a computer for 7 hours when my headaches would typically start.
This article is not professional medical advice. It’s based off my personal experience and opinions. For years, my poor computer posture caused muscle tension, inflammation, and chronic pain. Bad posture also decreased my mental clarity, energy level, and work productivity.
All the workplace wellness tips I write about are directly related to improving posture at a computer. We are our own primary caretakers. Do your research. Make good decisions. And be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.
Does Bad Computer Posture Cause Headaches?
In my experience, the answer is definitely yes. I’ve learned a lot about computer ergonomics since I stopped getting headaches in 2014. This article will talk about the poor posture habits that contributed to my headaches the most. Then, it’ll go over some computer ergonomics for headache prevention.
Forward head posture
The average human head weighs 11 pounds. A common computer posture mistake is to hold our head in front of our torso for long periods of time. When doing this, a lot of vertebrae, muscles, and tendons are working overtime to support the head in this vulnerable position. When the neck muscles get overused, it puts more pressure on the soft tissue around my head. This used to cause tension headaches for me often.
Keep your head in a neutral, balanced position over your torso
We need to increase our body awareness to know when we fall into forward head posture. Once this happens, we need to correct it quickly. Sometimes our monitor is too small. This makes us naturally lean forward to read our screen better. Investing in a larger monitor could help prevent forward head posture, as well as computer eye strain headaches.
Or, our eye level may be incorrect. I always keep the top of my monitor screen at eye level. This reduces my tendency to lean my head forward to look down at my screen. This keeps my head position neutral and balanced, preventing headaches.
Laptop use and head pain
Laptop use can be very convenient when on business travel. However, working on a laptop caused me a lot of head pain and muscle tension. This is because I was looking down at an excessive angle, at my laptop screen, for long periods of time. Holding this compromised position caused repetitive strain injuries, neck pain, and muscle tension from computer use. Whether it’s a direct connection or indirect, everything is connected in our bodies. Muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, etc. In my case, my tight neck muscles were directly connected to the soft tissues that wrapped around my head. When my neck muscles got chronically overused, it put a lot of pressure on the soft tissues around my head. This was poor desk posture and it caused many headaches for me.
Use an external monitor when working on a laptop
Ever since I started using an external monitor with my laptop, I’ve been able to avoid these posture-related tension headaches. As I mentioned in the last section on forward head posture, I always keep the top of my monitor screen at eye level. While working on a laptop, using an external monitor is a critical requirement for good computer workstation ergonomics.
Computer Ergonomics for Headache Prevention
Computer posture takes place at our desk. But computer ergonomics can take place anytime, day or night. Because ergonomics is the study of people’s efficiency in the workplace. There are multiple healthy habits (practiced away from work) that improve my computer posture. These workplace posture tips can be related to hydration, sleep, breathing, and nutrition. All of these can relate to how good, or bad, my computer posture is the next day. Here are a few “away from work” ergonomic tips for headache prevention.
Stay hydrated to prevent sitting position headaches
I used to be chronically dehydrated. I would drink from low quality sources, such as tap water, or ultra-purified water with no minerals. These days, I drink water that’s been purified through reverse osmosis. But, I make sure to remineralize my water before drinking it.
Dehydration was a heavy contributing factor to my headaches while working in computer posture. Back then, I would rarely drink enough water.
There are a lot of variables that should be considered when figuring out the right amount of water to drink. All of us have different body weights, physical activity levels, eating habits, etc. To learn more about these variables, check out my article titled How Much Water Do I Need to Drink Per Day?
mouth tape during sleep to avoid overuse of jaw muscles
I used to be a chronic mouth breather. This led to 1 of 2 situations. My mouth was opening and closing for every single breath I took, inhale and exhale. Either that, or I was constantly holding my mouth open. Keeping my mouth open all day and night overused my jaw muscles. When a muscle gets overused like this, it affects the surrounding muscles and tendons. Naturally, my overused jaw muscles created poor oral posture, which would cause headaches for me.
In early 2023, I started taping my mouth shut while sleeping. I’ve been doing it every night since then, with no plan on stopping. It’s improved my oral posture, which relaxes my jaw muscle while sleeping. This has helped me naturally keep my mouth closed more throughout the day, even when I’m not wearing mouth tape. All of these have been key factors of headache prevention for me.
To learn about more benefits I’ve gotten from mouth taping, check out my article titled Benefits of Using Mouth Tape for Sleep.
Eat clean, real food
I used to eat nutrient-deficient, ultra-processed foods. This didn’t just affect my posture negatively. It also caused health issues like low energy, poor mental clarity, and low work productivity.
In late 2022, I stopped eating fast food completely. I started cooking all my meals for myself and the results were eye-opening. My eating habits were finally an asset that promoted all-around good health for me. This included better computer posture and less headaches.
To learn more about my healthy eating habits, check out either of my nutrition articles titled Foods That Promote Good Posture or How to Cook Without Seed Oils.
THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST IN COMPUTER POSTURE.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps to reduce computer-related injuries by improving your posture. That’s something to be very proud of!
If you liked this article on desk posture and headaches, check out my book titled 45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.
This book is a great supplement to the article you just read. It covers healthy ergonomic habits like posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing.
I wrote this book to be the resource I wish I had back in 2002, when I first started sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen