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.
Thanks for the help, I will look into this :) I think I have low blood pressure but I’m trying to drink more water.
No they can’t. Lack of sleep is always detrimental to a person’s health. It just manifests in different ways.
check if you have sleep apnea. it can fuck your sleep hard without you ever noticing. ask someone if you snore loudly or hold your breath when you sleep as those are typical signs
People that don’t get enough sleep still suffer from it, they just might not be getting headaches.
Keep yourself hydrated and get more sleep. Take care of yourself.
Everybody is different. When I don’t get enough sleep I have a hard time thinking, and I get these uncontrollable movements. Didn’t used to have any issues at all.
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.
Get yourself one of these. Adustable to however thick you like just by adjusting the water.
Can that handle a cat’s claw?
Probably not.
a study?
I’m not living in that country.
Lolwut.
Does your holier-than-thou country not believe in peer reviewed science?
Might not be able to afford it?
Sure, but no one asked about studies from a specific country, we just got an unsolicited “tut tut” for no reason. I can live in Germany and read Canadian articles all I want. This particular poster just doesn’t have an open mind about the world.
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.
While this sounds scary, I don’t know what I am supposed to do to address the issue. I can’t force myself to sleep an extra 3-4 hours a night. I just wake up and can’t fall back asleep.
Plus, telling us that a lack of sleep is going to be doom to us later doesn’t help us sleep at night, right?
I am on a cycle right now where I can’t sleep without ambien and 300mcg melatonin. I’ve struggled with falling and/or staying asleep my whole life. My brain will calm down some and ill taper off of the ambien again at some point.
Besides the long term health, i am just not a pleasure to be around if i run on no sleep.
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.
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It’s the way your body uses to tell you to sleep more. I usually have a stomach ache
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.
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.
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.
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.
