Migraines and Sleeping
I was doing pretty good for nearly two weeks, but then I got hammered by head pain last night. The hammer centered on the left side of my face and centered on the side of my nose, behind my eye, eyebrow and ear. Looking at this episode in the cold light of day (or humid light of day, as in the case for the Philadelphia area where I live), I think it was a bad sinus headache as opposed to a migraine (which, for me, usually is on the right side of my head.) The upshot is that I didn’t get much sleep.
How Do You Get Comfortable?
One of the best thing you can do with any kind of severe head pain, be it the Sinus Headache From Hell or a migraine is to lie down in a dark room. Hopefully, you can then get to sleep and sleep off the attack. However, that advice is MUCH easier said than done. Here is some advice from fellow migraineuers about trying to sleep when an attack hits.
Last night, for example, my pillows felt like shifting rocks. My mattress wasn’t much better. I seemed to be more aware of the pain by trying to stay still than I was when I sat up, rocked in place and moaned.
Since I had slight relief sitting up, I sat up, turned on the relatively dim fishtank light and watched my goldfish beg in the twilight.
Imaginary Friends
I also talk to my goldfish. I don’t care if they understand me or not — I’ve got to do something to try and distract me from the pain. I couldn’t talk to the dog because she was snoring away like a fuzzy freight train. Nothing interrupts her beauty sleep. She can even sleep through fireworks.
All of my life — probably even in the womb — I’ve talked to imaginary friends. In my case, most of my friends just happen to reside in toy horses and photos of Peter Gabriel. I just talk to them about something else other than my head pain and within an hour I’m able to relax enough to try and go back to sleep. Of course, if one of them ever talks back to me one day (”Shut up! We’re trying to sleep!”) then I’ll know that my migraines are getting REALLY bad.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Rena, did you know that true sinus headaches are actually very rare? Most “sinus headaches” are actually Migraines. Teri published a great article explaining the difference:
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/types-of-headaches-192880-5.html
For years I thought I had sinus headaches, but it turns out they were all Migraines/CDH.
Be well,
MJ
August 11th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I’m just lucky, I guess — I get both. And they give quite different levels of pain & misery. Thanks for taking th etime to comment.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Oh, yuck. I think Megs over at Free My Brain also gets both. Sorry you’re stuck with them!
Be well,
MJ