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?
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.
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.
No they can’t. Lack of sleep is always detrimental to a person’s health. It just manifests in different ways.
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.
Get yourself one of these. Adustable to however thick you like just by adjusting the water.
Lolwut.
Does your holier-than-thou country not believe in peer reviewed science?
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.
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.
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)
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.
