The Sleep Connection

My sleep has never been good. I have always noticed a connection with my sleep as to how I am feeling MAV wise.

I have just had a bad run of MAV and sleeping a lot. Now I am back to terrible sleep, eg. sleep for 3 hours, then awake all night for 4 or 5 hours, then if lucky, back to sleep, for one or two, the bad MAV has lifted. If I have less than the four and a half hours I am more dizzy but not much headache, with the broken sleep hardly any headache or dizziness (kept under control with two halves of syndol painkiller a day). Is this back to the serotonin problem? Yet, if I take SSRIs, I get immediate migraine. Anyone experienced this?

Christine

This is completely off topic, but I saw that in MavLisa’s post, you mentioned doing IVF treatments. I was wondering if you could share your experience with me. I’m on meds right now to try to get pregnant (was on clomid last time, this time I’ll be trying femara). Did you get pregnant? How did your MAV react to the IVF treatment and pregnancy?

Hi Christine.

You and me both. The quality of my sleep correlates directly with the degree of migraine activity. I can sleep right through on one night and wake 4 times the next. If I were to suddnely go nuts with exercise, I’d be awake half the night with it all tripping out.

Interesting how we both get the headaches with many of these antidepressants. How do you do with food? Does food kick off a lot of headaches?

Scott

Scott,

I am the same. If I do a lot physically, go to bed really tired then dont sleep!

I have kept a diary of the food I eat every day, for years. I went on the elimination diet years ago (beef, parsnips and rice, if I remember). It never got rid of the heads. Then, as I added foods in, the headaches got worse, but I wasnt aware at the time, of the low blood sugar problem. The diary was the best thing, I could see a pattern with certain foods, some of which you wouldnt expect. For instance, this last year, every time I eat Turkey (which is meant to be one of the better foods) next day, everytime, either really bad migraine, or vertigo. Of course, as we know, sometimes we can get away with a trigger food, until we add another couple of triggers, stress, for instance, which makes it more difficult to identify, but I found, by keeping a diary, certain foods were showing up time again. I had a blood test done to identify foods I was allergic to and it just showed up yeast and eggs. I love eggs but cant eat them.

My very first severe vertigo attack was the morning after a lot of red wine at a party. Another one, the morning after too many rum and cokes away on holiday, I stopped drinking then. Tried one large glass of wine a year ago at a rather brightly lit (no music, no entertainment) Christmas do (just because I was feeling uncomfortable sober!), got home and vertigo!

I find the “Heal your Headache” book interesting as I never realized how much stuff monosodium glutamate was in, that has made some difference.

I also have a lot of trouble with different tablets, and also vitamins. Tried loads of stuff to sleep lately, melatonin, 5 HTP, L tryptophan, the next day, dizzy.

Have you identified any foods that definitely trigger your migraine or dizziness?

Christine

Cassada,

I felt really rough on Clomid, I remember I was Godparent to my friends baby and at the Christening I had to take the baby. She passed him to me and I was so dizzy I couldnt turn him round to hold him in the right way, I was afraid I would drop him. The different hormones on IVF, didnt make me as bad as the Clomid.

I was only pregnant for two months so cant remember how I felt then dizzy wise. After two failed IVFs, we went on to adopt a baby girl from Romania.

I wish you well in your attempt to have a baby, I know it can be a traumatic time.

Best Wishes

Christine