Thursday, July 16, 2015

Of Sleep Deprivation and Migraine Headache

When I first heard from people of their suffering from migraine headache, I told myself that it will not happen to me. 

When it happened to me, it hit me like a tonne of bricks, but I was none the wiser. Thinking that it was a normal headache I tried fresh fruit juices like lime and orange, essence of chicken and different types of snacks to try to shake off the migraine headache. As a last resort I would even take a Panadol. But, the pain would still persist.

Finally, I have discovered that the cause of my miserable headache is due to the lack of sleep. I am now a firm believer in the power of sleep and would avoid late nights as far as possible. The results: No more migraine headaches!

For more on the effects of sleep deprivation, you may wanna to check out Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation) and/or read the following extracts:-

"Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function."

"Among the numerous physical consequences of sleep deprivation, deficits in attention and working memory are perhaps the most important;such lapses in mundane routines can lead to unfortunate results, from forgetting ingredients while cooking to missing a sentence while taking notes." 

"The attentional lapses also extend into more critical domains in which the consequences can be life-or-death; car crashes and industrial disasters can result from inattentiveness attributable to sleep deprivation."

"Microsleeps occur when a person has a significant sleep deprivation. Microsleeps usually last for a few seconds and happen most frequently when a person is trying to stay awake when he or she is feeling sleepy.The person falls asleep no matter what activity he or she is engaged in. Microsleeps are similar to blackouts and a person experiencing them is not consciously aware that they are occurring."

"In rats, prolonged, complete sleep deprivation increased both food intake and energy expenditure with a net effect of weight loss and ultimately death."


For more on the causes of migraine headaches, please refer to the following link to "Migraine Causes - Mayo Clinic" (http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/migraine-headache/basics/causes/con-20026358)



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