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?

10 points

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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1 point
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8 points

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.

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1 point
*

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.

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7 points

It’s the way your body uses to tell you to sleep more. I usually have a stomach ache

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27 points

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.

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1 point

I actually don’t use any pillow (I just prefer lying flat on a mattress), could that be a problem?

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7 points

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.

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2 points
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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).

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1 point

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.

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2 points
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Get yourself one of these. Adustable to however thick you like just by adjusting the water.

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3 points

Can that handle a cat’s claw?

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-8 points

a study?

I’m not living in that country.

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6 points

Lolwut.

Does your holier-than-thou country not believe in peer reviewed science?

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10 points

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.

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1 point

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)

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2 points

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.

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2 points

I did read about a long-sleeper gene and a short-sleeper gene, which made me curious if I could be a long-sleeper

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2 points

Yeah, I believe my wife read an article relating to this. I’m squarely in the short-sleeper side of things.

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1 point

The long-term effects of sleep deprivation are devastating, dementia being the main problem. Check out some of the research on the subject.

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