does anyone wake up in the early hours because of a head injury ?

[Julesgettingthere]

[Bards]

Well I now only sleep 4 1/2 or 5hrs a night if that counts ie wake up at 5 a.m., feel refreshed and need to do stuff, but that does make fatigue pacing with such a long day a no-hoper. So mine's not disturbed sleep, just poor body clock. Is that what you mean...?

[hayabusa]

I wake up early in pain every day.

That's my get out of bed alarm.

If I lie there the pain will only get worse until I get out of bed.

Several heatpacks, several coffees and some pain meds later and I'm almost human. If I've got a nice Chelsea bun to go with it, I'm happy!

Some mornings I wake up with a massive headache even though I didn't have one at bedtime.

My headaches are fairly constant and borderline migraine. Oh and ice pick headaches.

What do you think wakes you up?

We have some fairly noisy neighbours who keep strange hours who wake us up at times.

[Hidden in reply to hayabusa]

YOU COULD ABSOLUTELY BE TALKING ABOUT ME ALTHOUGH MY HEADACHES ARE CLUSTER HEADACHES.

FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON I CAN'T SLEEP IN BED, I SLEEP ON THE SETTEE. I DON'T SLEEP AS DEEPLY & IT MAKES THE HEAD PAIN LESS WHEN I WAKE UP. I WAKE UP ANYTHING BETWEEN 4 & 6, IF I GET UP STRAIGHT AWAY THE PAIN IS LESS. AFTER MY PAIN KILLERS IT CAN BE GONE IN ACOUPLE OF HOURS UNLESS IT'S FULL ON CLUSTER.

LIKE YOU I HAVE NAMED MY HEACHES I HAVE ICE PICK TOO!. I ALSO HAVE KNITTING NEEDLE.BEANIE (WHEN THE EPAIN COVERS MY WHOLE HEAD) & CEMENT WHEN IT FEELS LIKE MY BRAIN IS SCRAPING DOWN A CEMENT WALL. WEIRD!

I THINK WAKING UP SO EARLY HAS JUST BECOME MY BODY'S NORMAL TIME CLOCK.

[spartan300]

this is not unusual , many of us here have physical as well as brain damage so when you have pain from both it can be difficult to say the least, these pains do not have a time table so they strike at any time including the early hours which in turn screws the rest of the day just like today for me.

[Julesgettingthere in reply to spartan300]

ah bless you x

[sospan]

Last night I stayed up till 2 am and was awake at 7am spent nearly an hour trying to get my joints working again and stretching. Never get tired but get cognitive fatigue.

[scruffycat]

So, is there a reason? Is there a test to show we're lacking something? Or are we on our own as usual.

[sospan in reply to scruffycat]

There are quite a few sleep clinics in the UK that your GP can refer you to.

There has been some evidence to show that anti depressant not only help you sleep but can also aid the repair process by reducing brain activity. Sleeping tables I tried but didn't make me sleep just deeper into a stupor during the day. I would go down the herbal route myself first

I find it helps if you have a routine during the day with set times to do things, eat and rest etc. It worked for me until recently when I have tried to push repair my thought process too much and now I can't switch off.

[Hidden in reply to scruffycat]

MY NEURO TOLD ME IT'S SOMETHING TO DO WITH HOW TRANSMITTERS GET MESSED UP DURING SLEEP BUT AS USUAL THEY DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW OR WHY.

[Phat01]

Sometimes it can be a hormone imbalance caused by damage to the pituitary gland e.g Not enough melatonin, I think it could also be to do with blood flow not getting around the brain too maybe... Whatever it is it's annoying! I think winding down for at least an hour before bed helps and as said getting a routine. Meditation is said to good.

[AntoAP]

Yes I do but I think that is a symptom of depression too. Trying to get back to sleep is a problem too.

[Hidden]

I think I get what I call break-through thoughts: brain on overdrive when over stressed/overtired and disrupts my sleep. (Based on breakthrough bleeding in between periods = what docs call it.) The more stressed/tired I get the less I can turn my brain off. At mo (coz way too stressed/noisy etc) my brain scrambled,full of scribble: searches on its own for solutions, bumps into brick wall coz can't find/do then ricochets off til hits opposite wall. Terrible, then BAD burning inside = short circuits? Feels like it's scorched/singed inside. Also head/neck position does it, can't ever get that comfy and when worst brain feels like it'll explode and have to move/get up.