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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
