How much sleep you need?

I have always needed much sleep.
If I do not get my minimum 8 hours, I am more likely to wake up with a h/a or migraine. The 9 hours is even better for me. Good long night sleep is vital to my wellbeing.And in a way I am lucky since unless I have a bad migraine, I do not have trouble sleeping.

However any lack of sleep, or early morning calls, make me feel unwell, even if I do not get migraine; I cannot think, I cannot concentrate and I lack energy all day.

I would be interested to know, how much sleep other people need, and how lack of sleep affects your head.

Ditto to everything you said. My experience exactly.

you described moi. i could always sleep longer than anybody else, in childhood and teen years. i've always said i was "born tired", and it's literally true, as my mother was given ether, and in those bygone days, babies and moms stayed in the hospital for 10 days.

the nurses couldn't wake me up, and neither could my parents when they took me home.

for the past 25 years, i've slept very poorly, and not at all without the help of drugs. if i don't get at least 7 total hours, i'm a total wreck.

my brain's sleep center appears to be broken. dianne

Ditto! I do best with 9-10 hours a night. More than that and I get a bit groggy feeling and may be more likely to have more head pain. I usually sleep 8 hours straight and then the last hour or few is more dozzing, but for some reason that last bit seems to help a lot.

8 is the best. The problem is that I can wake up at 1 or 2 and be restless until I get up at 5am.

I need 8-9 solid hours sleep but have not had that for over 18months. I think that is contributing to my issues but I seem to wake up very early every day. If I'm not in bed by 10pm latest I also turn into a pumpkin!!!!

Thank you very much for all your responses - it makes me feel so much better to know that I am not alone in this, that once again migraine seems to bring with it a more complex health issues which are common to many of us.

I so often felt guilty about sleeping too much, as other people are able to get up early and exist on much less sleep, but unless I am quite ruthless about it, I know that thet day will be completely wasted, so insisting on sleeping for another hour or two, brings me real health benefits.I am glad that I am not alone in this. I often felt that maybe I am just being lazy, becasue it so difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning.

What I don't understand is, that I although I find it quite it easy to fall aleep almost any time, when I wake up at night for any reason, it is the only time that going back to sleep is really difficult. I do not know how to deal with sleeplesness, I feel lost and irritated.

Also if I do not get enough sleep I am much more sensitive to some other migraine triggers, like too much light, or noise, or smells which can easily start a new bout of migraine for me.

Today we have a change in weather in UK and I fear next few days might be bad migraine again.

Hey mini,
Thanks for this post - it's interesting to hear what all our differences are. For myself, too much sleep can be a migraine trigger! By too much I mean more than about 8 hours. I usually err on the side of caution and go for about 6 - 7. I've never been quite sure why this is, but I usually wake up all stuffy faced and that seems to have something to do with triggering off the migraine - OR, that's the prodrome of inflammation. Don't know. What I'm learning from this forum is how very different we are and yet we all have the same overall sort of 'condition'

Six to seven hours is about right for me, which I seldom get. More than that, headache. Sleep or nap on back on my back or left side, a bad headache for sure.

Martin

I am certain that sleep, too much or too little, plays an important role in triggering migraines. I think where we differ is in how sleep affects each one of us.

I also know that we are different in how we react to some other triggers. Some of us are extremely sensitive to certain foods, others are not. Some of us react badly to smells, other smother themselves in scents and they are fine.

I have also noticed over the years, that I have gained more triggers rather then less, and that certain things which did not bother me in the past, can give me and instant h/a now.
I have also re-trained myself, and by observing and eliminating certain triggers I have reduced many migraines which is great.

This condition has many aspects, each one of us presents slightly different picture, but no matter how strange symptoms we have in connection with migraine, we share them with many, many other people here. I find this very comforting, since there is very little understanding how complex this condition is, and this can make us all feel rather misunderstood and alone.

So many people, including doctors - specially doctors!- can make you feel like if you are attention seeker, or simply mad, when you tell them that for example sitting on the sunny beach, or having room filled with scented candles, or going to cinema (noise) can make you instantly very ill.

So thank you for sharing your experiences.

Depends on the quality of my sleep - since I started taking marinol at night, I'm not restless due to spasms and pain.

I think I average 6.5 hours a night this time of year and do fine with it. I sleep a bit more in the winter and less in high summer. If the Marinol would work longer I could probably sleep longer before the spasms start up again. Maybe someone will come out with a time-released cannabinoid drug.

I was having a rush at work - just finisned 7 days of 12-14 hour days and was maybe sleeping 6 hours a night on my good days and was OK. But I can't keep that up indefinitely. If I start feeling too physically fatitigued, my preventative will stop working. Once I get "inflamed" (as I think of it) not much will stop my migraines and I'm done for.

When I was younger I definitely needed more sleep - 8 hours at least. But as I've aged (mid-50s now) I seem to want less sleep.

-Pete

I am sure that sleep is a huge issue for me when it comes to migraines. I know I need 8 hours of sleep, but it needs to be good sleep. I often wake up feeling unfreshed and I know I don't sleep well often.

That definitely sets me up for being more susceptible to other triggers (scents, light, stress, etc..) like others have said, as well as waking with a full blown migraine sometimes too, especially when my hormones are out of whack.

Much of the research is showing that poor sleep is very much tied to chronic migraines. Well, I have known that about myself for years. The question is how to get better quality sleep.

I am very regimented about being in bed at 10-10:30 pm, even on the weekends. Doesn't make me very much fun these days!

I don't seem to have a problem with even sleeping up to 9 hours, if I can. I long for those days when I was young and could sleep like a rock!

Jangel, my experience is very much like yours.
I sleep soundly, hardly ever wake up at night, but I never, ever feel resfreshed, or not tired in the morning and it takes me hours to get going physically and mentally - it is such a hard work. I hate mornings because of that - migraine, or no migraine.

I also go to sleep quite early, and I am usually asleep before 11pm. I try to make it my routine so my body clock "knows it". I use to be a late night person, but not any more.
My eyes are closing now it is hald past ten at nigt in UK.
I wish everyone painless days.

I feel the exact same way. Whenever I do not get the required amount of sleep, sometimes I have to just stay home because that's a definate trigger of a migraine. Even if I don't get one I still feel just really really sick

MM, I just want to welcome you to our forum.
It was good to hear your reesponse - I felt like this yesterday. I had many very urgent jobs to do at home, but something woke me up at 5.30 am and I was unable to go back to sleep, so as a result I felt terrible all day, and could achieve very little, just created more mess when I tried. I was feeling quite ill and disorientated, just like you describe.

I find that I need 9 to 10 hours of sleep, to be at my best. If I get less, then I get up more tired than I was when I went to bed.

I have a very difficult time getting to sleep, then once asleep, I have a very difficult time getting back up again. I have always been this way, from infancy on. I think that I may be hard-wired for swing shift. It is currently shortly before 2 AM here, and I have not yet been to bed tonight.

When I am actually sleeping, I am unable to drink water; therefore I tend to wake-up dehydrated. Dehydration is my biggest trigger.

Yes, I am sure you are right MK - I think it is dehydration that is the cause of so many of our morning headaches.
Like you I have also needed plenty of sleep, even as a child. Tthe longer I sleep, the better I feel next day so sleep is vital to my wellbeing.
Sorry you cannot get to sleep, that is horrible feeling, but I hope you are asleep by the time I write this, since we have time difference (in UK).

Nine hours is my sweet spot. I'm like others of you in that I always needed more sleep than other kids to be functional. That's one of the only good things about not being able to work outside the home - since I set my own schedule I can get the right amount of sleep as long as a migraine isn't interfering.