Sleep after migraine attack
Hi,
I typically wake up with my migraines. I often sleep most of the day away when I am having an attack (which is a blessing!). However, then I'm wide awake at night having slept away the better part of 24 hours in a row.
I know that keeping a regular sleep schedule is important for migraine management. I feel like staying up all night, but then can't stay awake until my regular bedtime the next day because of the postdrome fatigue. Essentially it's as if a migraine switches me from day shift to night shift in one day. The best I have been able to do is take Big Gun sleeping pills, manage to fall asleep in the middle of the night (3-4 am), sleep in the next day (10-11 am), and then get back on track the days following.
How does everyone else manage this? I'd love to hear any suggestions.
Thanks!
Hi Delaney7,
You are correct, a regular sleeping pattern is essential for people with migraine. And many times when we wake with migraine and/or head pain it could be an indication that it's time to have a sleep study. That would be the first thing I would do; discuss having a sleep study with your doctor to rule out any sleep disorders.
We do have tips for getting sleep you may want to look at in these link; https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-triggers-sleep-1/
https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-triggers-sleep-2/
https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-triggers-more-sleep-rules-tips-and-tricks-part-3/.I hope you find this helpful,
Nancy
I do the same thing. When I'm having a migraine attack, I spend most of the day in bed. I might wake up at some point in the day and check emails and watch TV for a short time (I am blessed with working from home, though my work does have me working with people on Skype, so I have to sometimes cancel lessons when I'm in a migraine episode) just because I'm sick of sleeping, but I eventually return to bed. I end up not sleeping well during the night, but if the daytime sleep makes the migraine go away (and it usually does, if only temporarily if I'm on a 2 or 3 day migraine cycle), then it's worth it.
One weird thing I've noticed is that when the migraine completely goes away, that same night, I tend to be very creative. I'm a writer, so I get these ideas about writing during the night, strong enough to get me out of bed in the early hours to take notes. I guess the freeing of pain from my head encourages creativity 😁.
Tam
Tam, that is very much what my experience is like. I agree, the disruption in sleep schedule is worth it to have tthe pain go away.
Your experience with migraine and creativity is something I've read about several times before as well. A silver lining, as it were!
