When I get a lack of sleep (or especially multiple nights of bad sleep), I often have a splitting headache the next day that makes me unfunctional and worsens until I get more sleep. Other people I’m with have the exact same sleeping routines and never get any headaches, and can still function despite being tired. What’s wrong with me?
When I get a lack of sleep (…), I often have a splitting headache the next day
This connection is typical for migraine.
Also, many people sleep with a too thick pillow, and this could also cause headaches because of tensions. Try a thin one, or only a little towel instead of a pillow.
I’m interested in your pillow thickness comment. Do you have any more information about that, like a study?
I used to sleep on a very thin pillow since I was a stomach sleeper. As I’ve aged, I end up on my side and back more, and I had to get a thicker pillow.
I’ve always wondered what stomach sleepers do with their face. Like don’t you end up being unable to breathe or rubbing your nose and mouth on the blankets? Also is your neck not crooked to compensate for that?
I wish I were able to sleep on stomach or back so that I could sleep symmetrically, I think it would be better for me if I could fall asleep that way. But the sleep just doesn’t come… unless I’m sideways in a fetal position, and only on one side (left side).
When I was a kid, I somehow managed to breathe through my pillow. Or I’d prop up my forehead on the pillow and rest my chin on the mattress which left enough room to breathe.
Now as an adult, when I do sleep on my stomach, my head is turned to the side. My neck is horribly crooked, but that doesn’t seem to bother me. In fact, when I fall asleep, I apparently roll onto my back, and tilt my head to the side (perpendicular to the rest of my body). My wife has told me I’m a creepy sleeper since it looks like my neck is broken or is at an absurd angle. I somehow never wake up with neck pain.
a study?
I’m not living in that country.
I actually don’t use any pillow (I just prefer lying flat on a mattress), could that be a problem?
Another possibility — are you drinking enough water? I will wake up with a migraine if I’m dehydrated. Unfortunately, as you age and the bladder loses resiliency, it becomes a balance of enough water to not get dehydrated, but not so much that you’re waking up at 2 am to pee.
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Nothing is wrong with you in that getting a headache due to lack of sleep is pretty common. Happens to me sometimes. How easily and from which things you get headaches really depends on the individual. But you should try pain meds if you haven’t already. They could help you be functional for the rest of the day.
To be honest, I think when it happens it’s too painful for any pain meds to work unless they were super strong like opiates, and even then. Basic pain meds do nothing. Sleep really is the only fix I’ve discovered… also it’s always localised on the right side of my head, never the left.
You could always see a doctor about it, such pain is a valid reason. And of course, even without headache, it’s good for your health to maintain a good sleep schedule
Hey! For context: I have migraines sometimes, less and less as I age it appears (almost middle aged now).
Just because ‘basic’ pain medication does not help you, it doesn’t mean that none will. Paracetamol will do nothing for my migraines, but ibuprofen helps a ton. I even have liquid caps now so it works faster, 10/15minutes as opposed to 30/50 minutes.
When I spoke to my doctor after I had an episode that left me crying in the shower ( and punched through the ibuprofen like I had taken pain-enhancers somehow) about other pain medication, he mentioned the family of triptans. The triptan he prescribed (sumatriptan?? I forgot the exact name) me makes me a bit sedated ( yellow sticker meds in EU, can drive but extra caution), but at least it helps. Anything to lighten the load :-) . Hope this helps you find your path away from the pain.
I still have some triptans, a couple different ones in the medicine cabinet. I can go a year without thinking i might need one. They make me feel like my brain is starved for oxygen or something like that.
They do work, but if hydration, tylenol, or ibuprofen will help I’d rather use them.
Some people don’t require the same amount of sleep to function. I sometimes go weeks only sleeping 4-6 hours a night without being too drained, while my wife is exhausted if she gets less than 8 hours of sleep for a single night. Also, some people need a similar sleep schedule nightly while others can be sleep deprived on the weekdays and make up for the deficit on the weekends.
I did read about a long-sleeper gene and a short-sleeper gene, which made me curious if I could be a long-sleeper
Yeah, I believe my wife read an article relating to this. I’m squarely in the short-sleeper side of things.
The long-term effects of sleep deprivation are devastating, dementia being the main problem. Check out some of the research on the subject.
While this sounds scary, I don’t know what I am supposed to do to address the issue. I can’t force myself to sleep an extra 3-4 hours a night. I just wake up and can’t fall back asleep.
Plus, telling us that a lack of sleep is going to be doom to us later doesn’t help us sleep at night, right?
I am on a cycle right now where I can’t sleep without ambien and 300mcg melatonin. I’ve struggled with falling and/or staying asleep my whole life. My brain will calm down some and ill taper off of the ambien again at some point.
Besides the long term health, i am just not a pleasure to be around if i run on no sleep.
Different people need different amounts of sleep to function and be healthy, but you can’t “make up for the deficit”. If your body needs 8 hours per day and you sleep for 4 hours one night and 12 the next, your body doesn’t net it out. (Just using 8 hours as an example, it could be different)
From my understanding, the science for and against this is still being researched. I know it’s not a 1:1 “catch-up” period, but I believe that you can somewhat balance your sleep debt over the course of several days to some effectiveness.
You might be overly sensitive to caffeine. I can’t have caffeine after, say, 1pm, or it will make my sleep restless. Maybe try no caffeine after breakfast.
Another possibility is maybe you’d do better working nights. Then you sleep during the day.
I never drink caffeine, maybe I should :)
Appreciate your advice, but sometimes I’d actually rather go on little sleep if I were able to function properly. The pursuit of actually getting proper sleep is sort of a whole different ball game hahah, but sometimes I’d rather not try to if that makes sense, so that I have more hours to get things done.
For a decent chunk of my early 20s i had to take amitriptyline a couple of hours before bedtime to prevent migraines. It also makes you sleep on cloud 9. I was on call at nights and there was no snapping out of the sleep pull, thats the only scenario I can think that it may not help.
Talk to a doctor about it. I have had a couple of brain scans and don’t have anything up there that looks bad. It just happens to some people.
I’m sorry you were going through that, I take it by your use of past tense you no longer have that issue? If so I don’t suppose you know what could have fixed it? Hope you’re doing better now :)
Yeah I think it went away at the start of my 30s. Definitely glad it’s not a worry anymore.
I can still get stress or dehydration headaches, but no constant small one that breaks through to eye stabbing with my heartbeat.
I have heard it is common for them to go away by 30s.
Very interesting, I really would like to know more about why that happens. A few people here said their migraines went away as they got older.
Do you take adderall? lol this post reminded me of when I’d ask my GP why I was getting headaches so often and he confirmed that lack of sleep, dehydration, food deprivation, and well, studying all the time, was bound to cause some negative symptoms.
Even if you don’t take adderall, take a breather, step back and relax, although it may feel like we’re complex unbeatable machines, sleep is more important than you may think.
I personally went through this thought as well but what you may be failing to consider is how often you may neglect your sleep, for how long do you do this, and more importantly, the pain tolerance of others. Some people simply do not communicate their uncomfortable feelings or have a duller sense of them. It does not make you lesser or more than those others but take a moment to appreciate yourself and all the work that you do. You are doing just as much at your own pace.
Low blood pressure, low blood sugar, maybe dehydration? When you miss out on sleep, are you in bed trying to sleep and unable? I know for me, low blood sugar will give me headaches, and if I’m awake longer with less sleep my body has expended more energy than normal and needs that extra fuel to function properly. I always wake up starving if I was up late without eating later. When you sleep, your body, obviously uses less stored nutrients to operate. If you’re not changing your routine with eating and drinking and you miss out on sleep, you may need water/food. Or it could be stress from lack of sleep tensing you up or you’re sleeping at a weird angle because your schedule is off and your body didn’t use it’s muscle memory and get you into a better position.
Basically, you’re going to want to pay attention to the things you’re doing (or not doing) besides losing sleep. Eating/drinking, physical exertion, how does the rest of your body feel when you wake up?
Thanks for the tips. I think I have lower blood pressure in general, and I get a lot of neck pain. My sleeping position is awkward and I can’t really get to sleep without being in a fetal position, and lying on my left side because lying the other way hurts my neck. That could have something to do with it, I’m not sure.
