Table of contents:
- Lack of sleep causes frequent headaches
- Frequent headaches can also make you sleep deprived
- Headaches can also occur due to sleeping too much
Have you been experiencing one-sided headaches or migraine pain recently? Try checking your sleep patterns recently. The reason is, research has found that recurring headaches can be caused by lack of sleep, even the two are related to one another. How can? Here's the explanation.
Lack of sleep causes frequent headaches
Headaches or migraines and sleep disturbances are two things that trigger each other. In fact, these two problems are like a vicious circle that can interfere with the health of the body. How come, huh?
Reporting from the Verywell page, a study published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences in 2012 found that many patients with severe headaches had sleep disorders.
Another study also gave similar results, namely that patients with chronic migraine pain have more difficulty sleeping than patients who experience migraines that only last for a short period of time.
So experts claim that there is a substance that plays a direct role in regulating the sleep cycle as well as influences the symptoms of one-sided headache. This substance is called serotonin. This serotonin regulates the sleep cycle, if the levels in the body are disturbed then you will experience sleep problems.
Well, unbalanced serotonin levels can also make blood vessels constrict, making blood flow to the brain not smooth, and eventually causing headaches.
Frequent headaches can also make you sleep deprived
Although initially the relationship between lack of sleep and migraine pain is not certain, the findings by researchers from Missouri State University provide sufficient evidence. This study used a sample of mice with attention to sleep patterns with the appearance of chronic pain in mice.
One group of mice was left not sleeping for several consecutive days and the other group of mice continued to have a normal sleep cycle. The result, mice who lack sleep produce a number of proteins that trigger chronic pain, including protein p38 and PKA.
Both proteins are types of proteins that regulate the sensory response to the trigeminal nerves in the face, the nerves that cause migraine pain. In addition, sleep deprivation also triggers increased expression of the P2X3 protein, a protein associated with increased chronic pain. This is why people who experience headaches often have trouble sleeping.
Headaches can also occur due to sleeping too much
From a number of studies that have been conducted, the causes of headaches are mostly experienced by people who often lack sleep. However, you can also get one-sided headaches if you sleep too much at one time.
For example, you are used to waking up every 6 in the morning on an active day but you have targeted to wake up later on the weekend. Instead of getting more rest, this can actually trigger migraine pain.
Therefore, determining the same time to sleep and wake up is important. Especially if you often experience migraine pain, you should set the same bedtime and wake-up time every day. If you are used to getting up at 6 am every day, then do the same thing on Saturdays and Sundays.
Migraines and sleep disturbances are two common things that happen. If you experience migraines, you may not necessarily experience sleep disturbances. Vice versa. Therefore, if you experience one of them, immediately consult a doctor to find the right treatment according to your condition.
