Home remedies · Sleep, nerves & head
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
Sit upright on the bed, turn the head 45 degrees towards the affected side, lie back quickly with the head slightly over the edge, wait 30 seconds; then turn the head 90 degrees to the other side, another 30 seconds; then roll body and head further in the same direction until you look at the floor, another 30 seconds; sit up slowly. Repeat two to three times, over several days.
In positional vertigo tiny crystals have strayed into a canal of the balance organ. The manoeuvre carries them back with gravity to where they no longer interfere. It is one of the very few home remedies whose effect is clearly shown in controlled trials — often a few sessions are enough.
It helps only with this one pattern: short, intense spinning attacks of seconds up to a minute, triggered by turning the head, lying down or sitting up. With continuous vertigo over hours or days it does nothing.
Have the affected side determined before the first attempt — done on the wrong side it makes things worse. Not with fresh neck problems, after neck surgery, with narrowed neck vessels or retinal detachment. Do not do it yourself if the vertigo comes with double vision, speech or swallowing trouble, numbness or paralysis — that is an emergency.
Get seen at once: the sudden, worst headache of your life, headache with fever and a stiff neck, with weakness, speech or vision trouble. Likewise dizziness with double vision or an unsteady gait. Sleeplessness over weeks with loss of drive is something to discuss, not to endure.