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Light-headedness is a common and often unpleasant sensation of dizziness
Dizziness

Dizziness describes a number of subjective symptoms, which the patient may describe as feelings of lightheadedness, floating, wooziness, giddiness, confusion, disorientation or loss of balance....
 and/or feeling that one may be about to faint, which may be transient, recurrent, or occasionally chronic
Chronic (medicine)

In medicine, a chronic disease is a disease that is long-lasting or recurrent. The term chronic describes the Course of the disease, or its rate of onset and development....
. In some cases, the individual may feel as though his or her head is weightless. The individual may also feel as though the room is "spinning" or moving (vertigo
Vertigo (medical)

Vertigo is a specific type of dizziness, a major symptom of a balance disorder. It is the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is actually stationary with respect to the surroundings....
). Most causes of dizziness are not serious and either cure themselves quickly or are easily treated.

Keeping a sense of balance depends on the brain
Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
 processing a variety of information from the eyes, the nervous system
Nervous system

The nervous system is a Neural network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself. It processes this information and causes reactions in other parts of the body....
 and the inner ears.






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Light-headedness is a common and often unpleasant sensation of dizziness
Dizziness

Dizziness describes a number of subjective symptoms, which the patient may describe as feelings of lightheadedness, floating, wooziness, giddiness, confusion, disorientation or loss of balance....
 and/or feeling that one may be about to faint, which may be transient, recurrent, or occasionally chronic
Chronic (medicine)

In medicine, a chronic disease is a disease that is long-lasting or recurrent. The term chronic describes the Course of the disease, or its rate of onset and development....
. In some cases, the individual may feel as though his or her head is weightless. The individual may also feel as though the room is "spinning" or moving (vertigo
Vertigo (medical)

Vertigo is a specific type of dizziness, a major symptom of a balance disorder. It is the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is actually stationary with respect to the surroundings....
). Most causes of dizziness are not serious and either cure themselves quickly or are easily treated.

Keeping a sense of balance depends on the brain
Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
 processing a variety of information from the eyes, the nervous system
Nervous system

The nervous system is a Neural network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself. It processes this information and causes reactions in other parts of the body....
 and the inner ears. However, if the brain can't process signals from all of these locations, if the messages are contradictory, or if the sensory systems aren't functioning properly, an individual may experience dizziness and loss of balance.

Causes

Light-headedness can be simply an indication of a temporary shortage of blood
Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's Cell s ? such as nutrients and oxygen ? and transports waste products away from those same cells....
 or oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
 to the brain due to a drop in blood pressure
Blood pressure

Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels, and constitutes one of the principal vital signs. The pressure of the circulating blood decreases as it moves away from the heart through artery and capillary, and toward the heart through veins....
 or rapid dehydration
Dehydration

Dehydration is the removal of water from an object. In Physiology terms, it entails a relative deficiency of water molecules in relation to other dissolved solutes....
 from vomiting
Vomiting

Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Undesired vomiting may result from many causes, ranging from gastritis or poisoning to brain tumors, or elevated intracranial pressure....
, diarrhea
Diarrhea

In medicine, diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea , is characterized by frequent loose or liquid bowel movements. The spelling of "diarrhea" is an appropriation of the Greek "diarrhoia" meaning "a flowing through." ....
 or fever
Fever

Fever is a frequent medical sign that describes an increase in internal body temperature to levels above normal. Fever is most accurately characterized as a temporary elevation in the body's thermoregulatory set-point, usually by about 1?2 ?C ....
. Other causes are low blood sugar
Blood sugar

Blood sugar concentration, or glucose level, refers to the amount of glucose present in a mammal's blood. Normally, the blood glucose level is maintained at a Reference_ranges_for_blood_tests#Electrolytes_and_Metabolites between about 4 and 6 mM ....
 and anaemia. It can also be a symptom of many other conditions, some of them serious, such as heart problems (including abnormal heart rhythm or heart attack) and also stroke
Stroke

A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to a disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. According to the National Stroke Association, a "stroke" occurs when a blood clot blocks and artery or a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the brain....
, bleeding and shock. If any of these serious disorders are present, the individual will usually have additional symptoms such as chest pain
Chest pain

In medicine, chest pain is a symptom of a number of serious conditions and is generally considered a medical emergency. Even though it may be determined that the chest pain is non-cardiac in origin this is often a diagnosis of exclusion made after ruling out more serious causes of pain....
, a feeling of a racing heart, loss of speech or change in vision.

Many people, especially as they age, experience light-headedness if they arise too quickly from a lying or seated position. Light-headedness often accompanies the flu, hypoglycaemia, common cold
Common cold

Acute viral rhinopharyngitis, or acute coryza, usually known as the common cold, is a highly contagious, virus infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, primarily caused by picornaviruses or coronaviruses....
, or allergies. Dizziness could be provoked by the use of antihistamine
Antihistamine

An H1 antagonist is a histamine antagonist of the histamine H1 receptor that serves to reduce or eliminate effects mediated by histamine, an endogenous chemical mediator released during allergy....
 drugs, like Xyzal (Levocetirizine
Levocetirizine

Levocetirizine is a third generation non-sedative antihistamine, developed from the second generation antihistamine cetirizine. Chemically, levocetirizine is the active enantiomer of cetirizine....
) or by some antibiotics or SSRIs.

Treatment

Treatment for light-headedness depends on the cause or underlying problem. Treatment may include drinking plenty of water or other fluids (unless the light-headedness is the result of water intoxication
Water intoxication

Water intoxication is a potential fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by over-consumption of water....
 in which case drinking water is quite dangerous). If a sufferer is unable to keep fluids down from nausea or vomiting, they may need intravenous fluid. Sufferers should try eating something sugary and lying down or sitting and reducing the elevation of the head relative to the body (for example by positioning the head between the knees).

Other simple remedies include avoiding sudden changes in posture when sitting or lying and avoiding bright lights.

See also

  • Vertigo
    Vertigo (medical)

    Vertigo is a specific type of dizziness, a major symptom of a balance disorder. It is the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is actually stationary with respect to the surroundings....
  • Dizziness
    Dizziness

    Dizziness describes a number of subjective symptoms, which the patient may describe as feelings of lightheadedness, floating, wooziness, giddiness, confusion, disorientation or loss of balance....