hi
im new to the site, but have been suffering with clusters for about 4 years, fairly chronic, with occasional (only very brief) periods of remission.
While I have investigated nearly every aspect of my life in trying to figure out what exactly makes these headaches tick, lately i have begin to notice some strange connections with sleep patterns.
It seems like i get WAY more headaches when i get a lot of sleep (8-12 hours). Regardless, of when i go to bed or how consistent my sleep pattern is. I seem to get the fewest headaches when i get 3-6 hours of sleep. Weekends where i get almost no sleep, i rarely get headaches. Whereas, the past week I have gotten about 8 hours of sleep a night with roughly the same bedtime
Anyone have similar experiences? I have always felt like i needed less sleep that 8 hours to have a full night, but could shifting my sleep to 4-5 hours of sleep help? Could it be healthy to consistently get this amount of sleep?

Thanks for any help or input anyone might have!!

When I'm in cycle, I sleep far fewer hours per night than when I'm out of cycle--3 to 5 hours, contrasted with 7 or so.

So yes--my sleep patterns are radically altered during a cycle. 

It isn't so much that I sleep less because I get fewer headaches that way, it's more that REM sleep is my primary trigger for individual attacks.  I'd sleep more during a cycle if at all possible--in fact, after a few weeks, I crave it.

But when falling asleep no longer "knits the ravel'd sleeve of care", the body resists.  Any creature learns to avoid the thing that causes pain.  So I stop sleeping until I can no longer stay awake. 

Even after a cycle ends, it takes several weeks for me to quit resisting sleep.  Aversive conditioning is a powerful thing.   

Best,

George

George wrote on Feb 21^st, 2011 at 11:45am:


Exactly what I was going to say, only much more eloquently. Blessings. lance