Sweet Dreams Migraine Warriors
I’m 59 years old. Aging with migraines isn’t all bad. My menstrual cycle-related migraines are long gone, and I’ve acquired the migraine wisdom necessary to develop a working management plan for my illness. I do miss a few things from my youth like metabolism, energy, and the ability to sleep anytime I needed to sleep.
From the time I was a toddler until somewhere in my mid to late 20s, sleeping off a migraine was a major player in how I treated an attack. Everything evolves, I suppose. Sleep is harder to come by these days, what with hot flashes, a snoring partner, and worrying about where the world is headed. Topics for entirely different articles, no doubt.
Over the years, I’ve discovered sleep and migraine have a more complicated relationship than I realized in my youth. Sleep can be a remedy or a trigger. Migraine balancing acts like this are commonplace and such a joy, especially when they mutate from one form to another.
In my younger years, I could alter my sleeping patterns with little to no effect on my migraine frequency. Later in life, sleeping too much or sleeping too little can trigger a migraine for me. I once could eliminate a migraine by sleeping in a dark, quiet room. Now, as soon as I recognize a symptom, I take a triptan tablet and lie down in a dark, quiet room. Sleep rarely gets to ride in to save the day before the medicine works its magic.
Sleep can still be helpful for me, though. In the last decade or so, my migraine episodes have begun to manifest themselves in the wee hours of the morning. Dreams have become a new tool in the treatment of my migraine. There are studies showing dreams can be the body’s way of informing us about health problems. Dreams can mean many things, from an expression of deep desires or innermost fear to a mashup of the day’s events, or an early warning system for health issues.
"Everyone dreams. Remembering them is important for our health because validation in our waking world is key to health guidance. Some dreams change lives. Other dreams save lives," says Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos, co-author of Dreams That Can Save Your Life: Early Warning Signs of Cancer and Other Diseases.
I once dreamt I was sleeping, and a wasp got into the bedroom. In the dream, I flung the bedspread to capture the wasp in the bedding, sprang out of bed, and turned the light on as I exited the bedroom door. I woke up down the hall to the sound of my husband cursing about the light shining in his eyes. I’d say this dream was an example of my fear of wasps.
About 10 years ago was the first time I found myself dreaming that I was having a migraine. By the time I woke up and realized I really was having a migraine, the episode had progressed to the point I knew a tablet wouldn’t work. I had to use a triptan injection to knock it down.
I made a mental note that night, and many nights since, to pay more attention to my dreams. My body was trying to tell me to wake up and take care of myself, and I missed the wake-up call. I can’t seem to sleep off a migraine anymore like I did in my youthful years, but I have added listening to my dreams to my migraine management plan. Everything evolves, and migraine is no exception.
Sweet dreams, my fellow migraine warriors.
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Originally posted at WebMD.com on 10-23-23.
