Posted by Laurence on July 14, 1998 at 17:58:38:
In Reply to: Naps posted by Ken on July 14, 1998 at 16:55:57:
Hi Ken,
Once a cycle gets going, a nap in the afternoon or evening will almost always be followed by a cluster for me too.
Sometimes the nap need only be for a few minutes but that seems to be enough to bring an attack on. A cluster will normally start within 10 or 15 minutes of my waking from the nap. Often the cluster is then shortlived (15 mins to half an hour) but on one occassion an attack went on for an hour and 15 minutes or maybe even longer.
These post nap clusters are a personal concern to me because they sometimes mean that I am having an attack while my two children are up and around the house. Needless to say, I then have even more reason to leave the house to try to walk (pace) off the attack. It isn't so much that the presence of my children will make the attack worse, it's just that I don't want them to see what the cluster is doing to me (teary eye, runny nose etc) in case it frightens them.
Occasionaly when I have a late evening post-nap cluster, I then sleep through the night. I therefore sometimes consider whether it is better to get it over and done with by midnight rather than take the 1, 2 or 3 am attack as the case might be. This "approach" does not always work, however, and so I end up getting both as my "reward" for trying to outsmart the beast.
One odd thing I notice with the afternoon or early evening attacks is that light doesn't really seem to trouble me. By contrast, almost any light at all seems to make the late/middle of the night attacks far worse.
The post-nap attacks are, for me at least, usually far milder than the late night ones - hence less sensitivity to light. Sleep affects our brain biochemical balance, and changes in that balance, it is thought, are responsible for our clusters.
Bye
Laurence