If you’re in the middle of a dizzy spell, the most important thing is to sit or lie down right away. Most episodes pass on their own within seconds to minutes, and staying low to the ground prevents a fall, which is the biggest immediate risk. Once the dizziness fades, get up slowly and carefully. What you do next depends on what’s causing the spells in the first place, and there are several practical steps you can take both during and between episodes.
What to Do During an Episode
Lie down on a flat surface and stay there until the room stops spinning or the lightheaded feeling passes. If lying down isn’t possible, sit with your feet flat on the floor and focus your eyes on a single still object in front of you. Avoid sudden head movements, and don’t try to walk until you feel steady. Keep water nearby and take small sips, since dehydration is one of the most common triggers.
If dizziness hits when you stand up from a chair or bed, your blood pressure is likely dropping temporarily. Before standing, sit on the edge of the bed or chair for a full minute. Squeeze your thigh muscles, clench your stomach and buttocks, or rise onto your tiptoes a few times. These muscle contractions push blood back toward your brain and can stop the lightheaded feeling before it peaks.
Red Flags That Need Emergency Care
Most dizzy spells are not dangerous. But dizziness paired with certain other symptoms can signal a stroke, heart problem, or other emergency. Call emergency services or get to an ER if your dizziness comes with any of the following:
- A sudden, severe headache or chest pain
- Rapid or irregular heartbeat
- Numbness, weakness, or loss of movement in your face, arms, or legs
- Stumbling or sudden trouble walking
- Slurred speech or confusion
- Double vision or a sudden change in hearing
- Trouble breathing, fainting, or seizures
- Continuous vomiting that won’t stop
The Most Common Cause: Loose Crystals in Your Ear
If your dizziness is triggered by turning your head, rolling over in bed, or looking up, the likely culprit is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV. Tiny calcium crystals inside your inner ear drift into a canal where they don’t belong, and every time your head moves, they send false signals to your brain that the room is spinning.
The standard fix is a repositioning maneuver, most commonly the Epley maneuver, which a doctor or physical therapist can perform in their office. It involves turning your head 45 degrees toward the affected ear, lying back quickly so your head hangs slightly off the edge of the table, then slowly rotating your head to the opposite side. You hold each position for 20 to 30 seconds. The whole process takes a few minutes and works by guiding those loose crystals back to where they belong. You may need to repeat it three times for best results.
A home version called the Brandt-Daroff exercise can also help. You sit on the edge of your bed, drop quickly onto one side with your head angled upward at 45 degrees, hold for 30 seconds, sit back up, then repeat on the other side. Doing this two to three times a day for about two weeks often resolves BPPV without a clinic visit.
Exercises That Retrain Your Balance
When dizziness lingers for weeks or keeps coming back, vestibular rehabilitation exercises can help your brain recalibrate. These are simple movements you do at home, typically for one to two minutes each, two to three times a day over a two-week period.
Gaze stabilization is one of the core techniques. Hold a letter or small target at eye level, then turn your head slowly side to side while keeping your eyes locked on the target. This trains your eyes and inner ear to work together again. A broader set of exercises, sometimes called Cawthorne-Cooksey exercises, builds on this foundation. They progress from basic eye and head movements while seated, to standing balance work, to walking up slopes and stairs, throwing and catching a ball, and playing games that involve bending and stretching. The goal is to gradually expose your balance system to the movements that trigger dizziness so your brain learns to compensate.
Check Your Medications
Dizziness is a side effect of a surprisingly long list of common medications. Blood pressure drugs, water pills, painkillers containing codeine, certain antibiotics, seizure medications, acid reflux drugs like omeprazole and lansoprazole, sleep aids, anti-anxiety medications, and even some anti-inflammatory drugs can all cause dizziness or vertigo. If your dizzy spells started around the same time as a new prescription or dose change, that connection is worth raising with your prescriber. Don’t stop any medication on your own, but do bring up the timing.
Low Blood Sugar and Dehydration
Blood sugar below 70 mg/dL can cause dizziness, and it doesn’t only happen to people with diabetes. Skipping meals, exercising on an empty stomach, or going too long without eating can drop your blood sugar enough to make you lightheaded. If you notice dizzy spells tend to hit before meals or after long gaps without food, eating smaller, more frequent meals with a mix of protein and complex carbs often helps. Keep a quick source of sugar on hand, like juice or glucose tablets, for when symptoms strike.
Dehydration is one of the easiest causes to fix and one of the easiest to overlook. Drink plenty of water before long periods of standing or any activity that tends to bring on symptoms. This is especially important in hot weather, after exercise, or if you take diuretics.
Food Triggers for Vestibular Migraine
Some people experience dizziness as part of a migraine, sometimes without any headache at all. This is called vestibular migraine, and certain foods are known triggers. The main chemicals to watch for are tyramine, nitrites, and MSG, which show up in more foods than you might expect.
The biggest categories to limit or avoid include:
- Aged cheeses: cheddar, brie, blue, parmesan, swiss, gouda, and similar varieties
- Processed meats: deli meats, hot dogs, sausages, pepperoni, jerky
- Alcohol: red wine, beer, and ales are the worst offenders
- Caffeine: keep intake to no more than two servings per day, and don’t vary the amount or timing from day to day
- Chocolate, nuts, and peanut butter
- MSG: listed as “natural flavoring,” “flavor enhancer,” or “hydrolyzed protein” on labels, and common in soy sauce, canned soups, bouillon cubes, and seasoned salts
- Artificial sweeteners: especially aspartame
- Fresh yeast products: fresh bagels, doughnuts, and sourdough (freezing may reduce the effect)
You don’t need to eliminate everything at once. Most people benefit from cutting out the most common triggers for a few weeks, then reintroducing foods one at a time to identify their personal patterns.
Ginger for Dizziness-Related Nausea
Ginger is one of the few natural remedies with decent clinical evidence behind it, particularly for the nausea that often comes with dizziness and motion sickness. In one trial, 940 mg of powdered ginger in capsules worked better than the standard over-the-counter motion sickness drug dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) and caused fewer side effects. Another study found that 1 gram of powdered ginger reduced seasickness by 38% and vomiting by 72% among naval cadets in rough seas. Ginger works on the digestive tract rather than the brain, which is why it tends to cause less drowsiness than conventional anti-nausea drugs.
A typical dose is 500 mg taken about an hour before you expect symptoms, with another 500 mg every two to four hours as needed. Not every study has found ginger effective, so results may vary, but the side effect profile is mild enough that it’s a reasonable thing to try.
Preventing Spells Between Episodes
Sleep with the head of your bed slightly elevated. Even a few inches can reduce the blood pressure drop that happens when you get up in the morning. Avoid standing for long periods without moving, and if you have to, shift your weight, march in place, or rise onto your toes periodically to keep blood flowing. Stay consistent with hydration and meals throughout the day rather than catching up later. And if your dizzy spells follow a pattern, like always in the morning, always after standing quickly, or always in certain head positions, that pattern is valuable diagnostic information to share with your doctor.