Can altering my sleep pattern give me headaches?
Hi! I’m just wondering if someone else has ever experienced this.
For a long time I had very poor sleeping habits (sleeping 3–5 hours per night), and I’ve recently tried to break this habit. I’ve been trying to sleep for at least 8 hours per night. The trouble is, I’ve had this terrible, persistent headache for about 4 days. I can tame the headache with advil, but it’s not really going away. I find it funny that I’m getting headaches now that I’m sleeping more.
I haven’t changed anything else in my daily routine, headaches are not common for me, and I’m healthy.
Do you think this is a coincidence, or can any alteration in sleeping patterns cause a headache? Any recommendations?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
7 Answers
As part of this experiment have you changed your caffeine consumption? Are you keeping hydrated? Other than those two things, I’d guess it’s a coincidence.
Did you usually eat before you went to bed and slept a short amount of hours? It could be that your stomach isn’t use to go so many hours without sleep or drinking something and now you are starved in the morning. If I do oversleep I do get what I call a hangover headache. I only need 7 hours. At 8 I feel tired and at 9 hours I get that headache you talk about. I figured out that the headache comes of hours of restless sleep. Before when you were asleep only 3 to 5 hours you probably went into a deep sleep. Now you are probably waking up slightly on and off and you aren’t getting as sound as sleep as you would need or are accustomed too. I wouldn’ve aimed for 6 hours at first for a week and then 7 hours. Eight hours may just be too much for you. As @zenvelo suggested, you may need to make sure you are well hydrated.
Try having a glass a water before bed and then when you get up.
It could also be just a coincidence and you may be developing allergies or sinus problems.
Have you given up coffee or caffeinated coffee? It could be caffeine withdrawal. in which case you could go to half cafe and cut down more slowly.
In my experience, yes. I’ve noticed I get headaches more often whenever my sleeping schedule gets more sporadic.
In my personal experience, it’s a resounding yes. The less good sleep I get, the less REM sleep, the worse the quality…well, the worse the migraine pattern becomes.
It isn’t odd that it’s happened now that you’re sleeping longer, nor is it odd that it’s lasting. For me, it’d be normal that once I fall into a headache pattern it’s difficult to swing out of it.
My guess would be that you’ll need time for your body to adjust to the change. Most likely something besides the amount you’re sleeping has changed: The time you’re eating breakfast or dinner, when you last have protein…if you think you might be hypoglycemic, the longer your nightly fast lasts, the faster you need to have a bite of food when you rise in the AM-etc.
Thank you so much for all of your responses!! This was really helpful. The headache has (finally!) gone away, so I’m hoping it was just unrelated.
Thanks, guys! :)
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
