Morning sickness is a common symptom of pregnancy, but you don’t have to be pregnant to feel sick with a queasy stomach in the morning. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why you could have a queasy stomach in the morning, six of which we have written conveniently down for you below!

1. Messed Up Sleep Schedule

Did you know not sleeping properly can make our stomach feel nauseous and queasy, especially in the morning? You have to remember that sleep is crucial to the regulation of your hormones, which control biochemical processes in the human body. Many hormones control our diet, digestion, and appetite, which is how sleep is directly related to the feeling of your tummy when you wake up.

And many of those other hormones also have an indirect impact on our tummies too. For example, lacking sleep leads to mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. When you have anxiety and depression, you feel down in the dumps, lose your appetite, and feel nauseous when you’re in a tough situation.

2. Low Blood Sugar

The health benefits of a well-balanced and healthy diet extend to dreamland. When we don’t have a diet that consists primarily of fiber, complex carbohydrates, and protein, digestion occurs way too fast that your body ends up being painfully hungry while you’re asleep. Then, you wake up with a roaring hunger that makes you feel sick!

This also happens when you skip meals, particularly before bedtime. Again, your body will keep begging you to eat more food, and when morning comes, you’ll feel super lightheaded when you’re supposed to feel refreshed.

In cases like this, it’s best to eat something light. You can eat a small snack just before bedtime—just something to tide your stomach over during its fast. You can also choose to eat after you wake up. It might seem undesirable, but it’ll help neutralize those acids sloshing around in your stomach.

3. Acid Reflux

A common mistake people do is to go to bed right after a heavy meal. Think about how awful that is—with so much food digesting in your stomach, the last thing you want to do is lie down and make things a lot harder for your digestive tract! Gravity aids digestion by emptying your stomach faster and helping the food go through your various organs and out of your body.

Indeed, lying down with a full stomach may have the opposite effect on digestion. Your food could end up going back up your esophagus, causing acid reflux. This causes heartburn, coughing, and nausea. Over time, this acid reflux will take a toll on your esophagus and can lead to esophageal cancer and damage.

Make sure you stand up for at least two hours before heading to bed.

4. Dehydration

It’s not just food you want to make sure you have before sleeping. You also need water to keep your body hydrated while it’s rejuvenating itself. If you’ve ever imbibed in alcohol, then you must know the feeling of waking up with an incredibly parched throat, the taste of last night on your taste buds, and your stomach feeling like it’s been punched over and over again. It’s not a great feeling.

Like food, drinking a little bit of water or even some light broth can help settle your stomach.

5. Anxiety

As we mentioned earlier, our digestive system is closely linked with our mental health. Some researchers even call our stomachs our second brains for this very reason! When one organ is going through problems, the other will know and will also be affected, just like how we lose our appetites when we’re depressed, or when we go through mood swings when we’re hungry.

Anxiety attacks big and small can affect how our stomachs feel when we wake up. Whether we’re worried about an upcoming exam, familial problems, or issues in the workplace, we can feel squeamish and queasy.

6. Nasal Congestion

As strange as it sounds, nasal congestion can also be the culprit behind your unsettled stomach. That’s because when our sinuses are clogged, they can put pressure on our inner ear. This inner ear is the same culprit behind motion sickness—our bodies cannot handle the inner fluid flowing around and struggle to send messages to our brains.

Nasal congestion is a very common condition, and thankfully, there are many remedies for it. These include fresh air (keep your bedrooms and sheets clean, people!), peppermint or ginger tea, humidifiers, and more.