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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
        
(Message started by: crazydog on Jan 11^th, 2006, 3:02am)

Title: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by crazydog on Jan 11^th, 2006, 3:02am

Obviously shadowing, the beast itself, depression, anxiety, and a great number of other things will cause disruption in sleep cycle.

But does anyone else experience sleep disturbance that do not seem to be directly related to anything?

Perhaps not being able to sleep at night before a cycle or at the end of a cycle?

Maybe getting very sleepy at a time of day that you normally have a lot of energy, or having tons of energy when you should be dead tired?

Does it come on rapidly, lasting not very long, and then leave quickly like the beast?

Do these disturbances coincide with or close to the same time of the clusters with in a cycle?

Just thinking about the importance of the hypothalamus, my own experiences, and wondering what others have experienced or would like to share.

Title: Re: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by gobby on Jan 11^th, 2006, 3:18am

I don't know if this is going to help at all, but I seem to be comming to the end of my current cycle, and find myself waking up in the middle of the night expecting to have a HA at the usual times, but there is nothing there. I think my body(or mind) has been awakened at these times for so long that it has become used to it and now just does it automaticaly. I'm fairly sure this will pass.

Title: Re: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by gore2424 on Jan 11^th, 2006, 6:20am

i am chronic and on disabillity so i sleep when i can wifey works 3rd shift so we have very odd sleeping times Terry

Title: Re: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by MJ on Jan 11^th, 2006, 8:28am

on 01/11/06 at 03:02:03, crazydog wrote:

Maybe getting very sleepy at a time of day that you normally have a lot of energy, or having tons of energy when you should be dead tired?

Does it come on rapidly, lasting not very long, and then leave quickly like the beast?

Do these disturbances coincide with or close to the same time of the clusters with in a cycle?

Yes. Quite often in fact.
I can be completely involved in something and suddenly I can barely keep my eyes open.

I have definately been able to relate this to the times I may normally have an attack, often just before.
I have never suffered from any sleeping disorders, but this cycle I have paid close attention to this.

In the last many years I treated myself with ephedrine a stimulant, wich I am lately wondering if it was actually helping with the silent sleepies (as Pink Floyd calls them) and that might be why I found it beneficial. Might help to explain coffee, red bull, etc.. too.

Touched on this a little bit in another thread a while ago.

MJ

Title: Re: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by E-Double on Jan 11^th, 2006, 8:56am

Sleep disruption occurs as I am about to enter another peek in cycle (chronic dude and have cycles within cycle)

I previously had night time attacks under control with melatonin.

I also was extremely lethargic which I attribute to verapamil since I have more energy despite loss of night time sleep since detoxing off of the med. The less I take the better I feel during the day. (I think)

My experience with sleep throughout my life has been awful even prior to clusters. Damn serotonin levels...Ya think there's a coincidence?? Of course there is.

Good luck!

Eric

Title: Re: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by crazydog on Jan 11^th, 2006, 12:23pm

Going back 8 years (1997) to the beginning I was episodic.

I had sleep pattern issues but I can’t recall which showed first; CH or the sleeping problems.

My gut feeling is that the sleeping problems where present before I took my first hit, but of course I did not even know what a CH was back then.

Moving forward a few years; in 2001, I started taking Zoloft for OCD and had both improvement in sleep patterns and headaches, still did not know what a CH was.

Later in 2004 my CH transformed to chronic.

Finally having destroyed my digestive system with OTC’s I went to the family doctor in mid 2005.

Even though my doctor suspected CH he also knew that in clinical trials Zoloft had a high probability of causing headaches. Yep, he took me off the Zoloft.

Now those sleeping disturbances, which did exist before, have just been amplified several times over.

So my point is that CH is connected to the hypothalamus and the hypothalamus helps regulate circadian rhythm.

As I have become more connected with CH and how it affects my life I wonder if the connection to circadian rhythm is much more important than what we realize.

Title: Re: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by eyes_afire on Jan 11^th, 2006, 1:35pm

Quote:

But does anyone else experience sleep disturbance that do not seem to be directly related to anything?

Quote:

Maybe getting very sleepy at a time of day that you normally have a lot of energy, or having tons of energy when you should be dead tired?

Yup.

At my last sleep study, I cycled into REM 'too quickly'. I also have a history of sleepwalking and acting out dreams although this has diminished over the past couple of years.

I have suspected that the answers to CH may be revealed in sleep brain waves and the sleep cycle. Who knows.

--- Steve

Title: Re: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by crazydog on Jan 11^th, 2006, 5:55pm

It has been interesting to watch the thread on “The possible role of melatonin in cluster headac”.

For example, CH patients have low levels of Melatonin. But when exactly in the circadian rhythm is it low, at day or night?

What if it was low at night and high at day, this might explain why some people feel the way they do while in a cycle and certainly could be attributed to a disorder of the hypothalamus.

And that Serotonin and Melatonin are related. So then in my case for example going off Zoloft while in a cycle would amplify any sleep disturbances. But then again Zoloft is very selective so maybe that is not a good example.

At any rate it is intriguing to think about.

Title: Re: Sleep Disturbances - Is There More
Post by yikes-another-one on Jan 12^th, 2006, 7:10am

I get most hits between 5 and 11 pm...for abot three months I started wakingat 1am and 3 am...have no reason why...nothing new stresswise, and no actual pain hits...just woke up, checked clock, sighed, and waited about 10 minutes to fall back alseep...
IT stopped after three months...ans i never got any bad hits....(Bump inthe Time-Space blanket that covers us?)