Waking Up Shaking and Dizzy

Side-Effects of Medication

Dizziness, nausea, shaking, light headed, consistent vomiting, stomach disturbances etc. are all normal side-effects of most medications. There are a great number of medications whose major side-effect is inducing early morning dizziness. Tranquilizers, analgesics, diuretics and anticonvulsants are usually responsible for causing shaking and dizziness during mornings.

Anxiety

If you have dizzy shaking feeling then it might also be because of any anxiety disorder like a panic attack. Anxiety attacks actually cause the person to breathe in too much oxygen, which tips over the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the body. As a result, the arteries become constricted and you start to feel all dizzy.

Inner Ear Disease

Your balance has a lot to do with the performance of the organs in your inner ear and if these organs become dysfunctional, you might start to feel dizzy. Usually, Menier’s disease and Labyrinthitis cause inner ear dysfunction though it can also happen as a result of a middle ear infection. While any issues with the inner ear can cause dizziness and shakiness at any point during the day, it’s often that the inner ear organs don’t function properly during the mornings.

Hypotension

Low blood pressure or hypotension is one of the major causes for you waking up shaking and dizzy as both pressure and heart rate is often at its lowest just after you wake up than at any other point when you are awake. Orthostatic hypotension, a type of hypotension, often causes dizziness as it’s a condition in which the body fails to maintain appropriate blood pressure when you look to stand up from a seated position. Hormone imbalances, anemia, loss of blood and dehydration can all cause hypotension or low blood pressure.

Anemia

Anemia in general and iron deficiency induced anemia in particular can cause dizzy shaking feeling in the morning. This is because the condition reduces the amount of oxygen that can be carried in the blood as a result of low hemoglobin levels. When combined with the fact that the heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate are all low while you are asleep, all the factors lead to dizziness just when you wake up and sometimes you feel shaky.

Diabetes Mellitus

Two types of diabetes i.e. type 1 diabetes mellitus and type 2 diabetes mellitus can result in you waking up shaking and dizzy. This is because natural hormonal level changes occur during the morning and these changes lead to abnormalities in the body’s glucose level. In Type 1 diabetes mellitus, natural changes in hormonal levels from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. cause a rapid increase in blood sugar level and this is why it’s called the dawn phenomenon. Type 2 diabetes mellitus often results due to poor management of diabetes and can cause abnormal drops and rise in glucose levels.

Hypoglycemia

Since you can’t eat while you are sleeping, the glucose levels of blood gradually decrease the more you sleep. When this is combined with a condition like hypoglycemia where the body simply fails to keep the levels of blood glucose within a certain range, it results in nausea shaking light headedness in the morning. Usually, you would start to feel better once you eat your breakfast though if you are suffering from reactive hypoglycemia, then you would start to feel dizzy a couple of hours after you have had your breakfast.

Other Causes

Other causes for waking up shaking and dizzy include:

• Pregnancy: Pregnancy results in changes in the hormonal levels and this usually leads to early morning sickness and dizziness.

• Vertigo: Vertigo is actually the name given to dizziness which is caused due to little coordination between brain and the associated nerves.

• Liver disease: Blood glucose levels get affected in liver disease and this can lead to early morning dizziness.

• Quick motion: Rapid movement like jumping up from bed just after you have woken can also cause dizziness.

• Psychiatric conditions – anxiety, depression, grief, psychological stress.

• Insomnia: Insomnia is a condition in which a person can’t sleep at all and as a result, the lack of sleep can also cause the person to feel nauseous in the morning.

• Cyanide, carbon monoxide or aspiring poisoning can also cause light headedness in the morning.

• Migraines or consistent headaches.

It’s possible that you actually suffer from a given condition before you go to sleep but as a result of any nervous system complication, the results of the condition may get delayed to the time when you wake up. When you wake up and feel dizziness and nausea, it’s actually a good option to try to sleep again rather than forcing yourself to wake up.

Once you feel slight dizziness in the morning, you should stay alert throughout the day in order to see if the feeling persists or not. You should also check if you feel dizzy too many times after you wake up or not. If you see that either the dizziness, light headedness and headaches doesn’t go away or they come back during the mornings mostly, then it’s time to meet your doctor in order to find out what’s wrong with you and how it can be treated.