Can teeth grinding cause headaches?

You wake up with a tight band of pressure around your temples, and your jaw already feels tired before breakfast. Plenty of people live with exactly this combination, and it is reasonable to wonder whether the grinding is behind the headaches.

Below I go through what the research shows and what you can do yourself, including an honest look at night guards.

In short

Teeth grinding and clenching often come together with headaches, and the NHS lists headaches among the symptoms of bruxism (NHS). The clearest link in research is between daytime clenching and tension-type headache, while night-time grinding showed no link with tension-type headache (Réus et al., 2021). The studies are few and low in certainty, so a direct cause is not proven.

• A headache at the temples that gets worse when you clench fits overworked chewing muscles.
• Morning headaches with loud snoring, breathing pauses or heavy daytime tiredness need a check for sleep apnoea.
• A night guard protects your teeth at night, and small studies suggest that noticing and releasing daytime clenching can help with the clenching itself.

What counts as teeth grinding?

The medical term is bruxism. An international expert group describes two forms. Sleep bruxism is chewing muscle activity during sleep. Awake bruxism is repeated or sustained tooth contact, or bracing and pushing the lower jaw forward, while you are awake (Lobbezoo et al., 2018). Daytime clenching is often silent, so many people only notice it once they start paying attention.

The group also says that in healthy people bruxism is better seen as a behaviour than as a disorder, and that it can act as a risk factor for certain problems (Lobbezoo et al., 2018). In practice, grinding becomes worth working on when it comes with pain, headaches or tooth damage. More on this on our teeth grinding page.

Does grinding actually cause headaches?

The best summary so far is a 2021 systematic review. Out of 544 articles screened, only five studies were strict enough to include. In the three studies on tension-type headache, the only positive association was with awake bruxism, with roughly five times the odds of tension-type headache in one analysis. Sleep bruxism showed no association with tension-type headache, and the findings for migraine were mixed (Réus et al., 2021).

The authors rated the certainty of this evidence as low to very low, and the studies differed so much that they could not be pooled (Réus et al., 2021). They cannot tell us whether clenching starts the headache or whether pain and stress drive more clenching.

Why do your temples hurt?

Put your fingertips on your temples and bite down gently. The muscle tightening there is the temporalis, a main chewing muscle. People who clench a lot often describe this as pressure at the side of the head.

The international headache classification (ICHD-3) has a specific diagnosis for headache that comes from the jaw joint or chewing muscles. It is usually felt at the temples on one or both sides. Two of the signs that link the headache to the jaw are that it gets worse with jaw movement, chewing or parafunction such as bruxism, and that pressing on the temporalis or moving the jaw during an exam brings it on (ICHD-3, 2018). The classification also notes that this headache overlaps with tension-type headache when it comes from muscle tension.

Jaw-related headache in general, including migraine, is covered in Can TMJ cause headaches?.

Morning headaches: grinding or something else?

Cleveland Clinic lists headaches or facial pain, especially in the morning, among the signs of bruxism (Cleveland Clinic, 2023). A headache on waking has another well-known cause that you should keep in mind, though. In obstructive sleep apnoea, your breathing stops and starts during sleep, and the NHS names a headache when you wake up as one of the daytime symptoms (NHS).

The headache classification describes sleep apnoea headache as a morning headache that is usually on both sides, lasts less than four hours and goes away once the sleep apnoea is treated successfully. It also points out that headache on waking is non-specific and turns up in many other headache and sleep disorders (ICHD-3, 2018). The NHS lists snoring and sleep apnoea among the things linked to teeth grinding (NHS), and one case report describes a morning headache first blamed on the jaw muscles that turned out to come from sleep apnoea (Ishiyama et al., 2025). If you wake with headaches and also snore loudly, gasp at night or feel exhausted during the day, ask your GP about it. The NHS stresses that sleep apnoea needs treatment because it can lead to more serious problems (NHS).

Try it: the one-week clench and headache log

I hand out this check first in physiotherapy because it shows how much your jaw works during the day. You need your phone or a notebook.

1. Pause right now and notice whether your teeth are touching.
2. Let your jaw settle into rest: lips lightly closed, teeth slightly apart, tongue resting softly on the roof of your mouth.
3. Place your fingertips on both temples and press gently into the muscle. Notice whether the pressure feels like your usual headache.
4. Set a few reminders across the day, such as a sticker on your screen, and repeat the first two steps every time you see one.
5. Each morning, write down whether you have a headache, where it sits, how long it lasts and whether your jaw feels tired. The NHS notes that a headache diary can help you work out your triggers (NHS).
6. Ask the person you sleep next to whether they hear grinding, loud snoring or pauses in your breathing.

After a week, take your notes to your dentist or GP. Frequent clenching plus tender temples points to your chewing muscles, while snoring and breathing pauses mean sleep apnoea should be checked first.

What helps with grinding and headaches?

In the moment

When you notice you are clenching, let your teeth part and breathe out slowly a few times. For jaw pain, the NHS suggests an ice pack wrapped in a tea towel for 20 to 30 minutes and paracetamol or ibuprofen if needed, and avoiding chewing gum and hard food while your jaw is sore (NHS).

Long term

For daytime clenching, Cleveland Clinic says you might not need treatment, especially if you can become more aware of the habit and reduce stress (Cleveland Clinic, 2023). A 2026 systematic review of awake bruxism found only nine small studies, but they generally pointed to benefits from behavioural approaches such as reminder prompts, habit reversal, biofeedback and counselling with self-management (Graham et al., 2026).

For night-time grinding, the NHS recommends ways to relax, such as breathing exercises, music and regular exercise, along with a regular bedtime and a dark, quiet bedroom. It also advises against smoking and heavy alcohol or caffeine (NHS). Gentle jaw exercises from our TMJ exercises page are a good next step.

What about night guards?

A custom mouth guard or splint from your dentist is worn at night and protects your teeth from damage (NHS). An older Cochrane review from 2007 found too little evidence that splints treat sleep bruxism itself, while noting there may be some benefit for tooth wear (Macedo et al., 2007). In people with headache and jaw disorders, a stabilisation splint did not reduce headache frequency in the first one to three months, and after four to nine months it reduced how often headaches came but not how strong they were, with low certainty (Demont et al., 2025). An international guideline on jaw pain lasting three months or more (chronic TMD) gives a conditional recommendation against reversible splints and strongly recommends jaw exercise, manual therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy (Busse et al., 2023). Its recommendations were written for chronic jaw pain rather than for grinding on its own. Our page on night guard alternatives sets out the other options.

How JawBuddy helps

JawBuddy is a digital companion for guided jaw exercises and self-management. JawBuddy Therapy includes a daily tooth contact check, which works much like the first two steps of the log above.

It does not replace emergency care or an individual diagnosis from a qualified healthcare professional.

When should you see a doctor?

The NHS advises you to call 999 or go to A&E (in the US, call 911) if you have a headache and any of the following (NHS):

• it started suddenly and is extremely painful,
• you have numbness or weakness in your face or body, find it hard to speak, balance, walk or remember things, have lost vision, or feel drowsy or confused,
• you have had a seizure, or a head injury in the last three months,
• you have a very high temperature, a stiff neck or trouble with bright light, or a rash that does not fade when you roll a glass over it.

Call 999 straight away too if you have jaw pain together with chest pain, shortness of breath or pain spreading to your arm, which can be a sign of a heart attack (NHS).

Ask for an urgent GP appointment or contact NHS 111 if your headache comes with vision problems or vomiting, or is triggered or made worse by coughing, sneezing, bending down or exercise. The same goes for a headache with jaw pain when eating or a sore, tender scalp (NHS). That combination needs a doctor to look at it before you start jaw exercises. Get your jaw checked promptly if it suddenly locks open or shut, after a blow to the face, or if it swells or you have a fever with jaw pain.

Book a routine GP appointment if you get headaches regularly or self-care is not helping (NHS), or if you notice signs of sleep apnoea such as breathing pauses, gasping at night or constant tiredness (NHS). See your dentist if your teeth are damaged or sensitive, if your jaw, face or ear hurts, or if someone tells you that you grind in your sleep (NHS).

Your mornings can feel lighter

Waking up with a sore head after a night of grinding wears you down. Daytime clenching has the clearest link to headache, and small studies suggest behavioural approaches can help you change it (Graham et al., 2026). Start the one-week log today and take your notes to your dentist or GP.

For the bigger picture, read our TMJ disorder guide.