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?
It’s the way your body uses to tell you to sleep more. I usually have a stomach ache
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.
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)
The main thing wrong with you, is you’re not getting enough sleep. Your body is telling you loud and clear. Sleep more
Yeah, I know when I get complete sleep I’m fine. But it just sucks that other people can go without much sleep and be fine but I can’t. It’s like that actually prevents me from being awake for as many hours at night than other people can.
No they can’t. Lack of sleep is always detrimental to a person’s health. It just manifests in different ways.
It’s your body. You can experiment. Check your electrolyte levels, check your blood pressure levels. When people don’t get enough sleep their blood pressure tends to go up, they tend to have more cortisol flowing in their bodies. So if your core metrics are on the high side, that might be enough to push you in a headache territory.
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.
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.
