Lack of sleep is a common trigger. Is there a way you can improve sleep? Read more for advice on how a regular sleeping schedule can improve your headaches.
5 tips to improve sleep:
- A regular sleep schedule of 7-8 hours a night.
- Do not watch television, read, eat, work or listen to music in bed.
- Use a visualization [1] technique to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep.
- Eat dinner 4 hours before going to bed. Limit beverages 2 hours before bedtime.
- Do not nap. It might be hard, but it is essential in order to re-establish night rest.
35% of 23 chronic migraine [2] sufferers (more than 15 days of migraine [3] a month) went back to an episodic frequency (less than 15 days of migraine a month) just by following these 5 tips.
No patient of the control group (who followed different instructions) reached this goal. Other useful tips:
Exercising regularly improves sleep quality and helps reduce the intensity of migraine attacks.
- If your spouse snores, you might want to consider sleeping in another room a few nights a week.
- If you have young children, try to manage one or two quiet nights a week.
- If you wake up in the middle of the night, get out of the bedroom and do a repetitive activity (knitting, puzzle, etc., but no television or computer). When you feel sleepy, go back to bed.
- Limit your caffeine [4] intake, especially after 3 p.m. Medication is not an ideal solution. Most medicines used by doctors to treat insomnia [5] have not been conceived for this purpose. These drugs disrupt normal sleep patterns and reduce its quality.
Some drugs can also aggravate sleep apnea [6], which causes daytime sleepiness. Also, many of these drugs can have long-term effects and slow you down during the day. Finally, the risk of addiction is high. The best solution is a behavioural remodeling of your lifestyle, supported by adequate medication and monitored by a doctor.