Posted by Graham (195.92.194.15) on August 14, 2000 at 20:00:12:
In Reply to: Years and years of this shit............... posted by Stew on August 14, 2000 at 16:42:42:
As I am a teacher there are periods of the year when I have major stress/workload. Subsequently, due to the holidays I get as a teacher, there are occasional times when I have far less stress. I am a chronic sufferer of four and a half years and I have found that I get far fewer attacks when I have lots of work and more stress. I believe, sincerely, that it is due to my sleeping patterns. When I have lots of work/stress I generally get a consistent amount of sleep of around six hours a night. Yes, I still get attacks but they are less frequent than when I am on holiday. As soon as I am on holiday, when I start sleeping in a little later (often getting 8-10 hours of sleep), I get hit far more. As soon as I start sleeping too much, or too little, I experience more clusters. For example, I went on holiday recently and experienced an 18-hour delay with my flight home. This meant that I got about 1.5 hours sleep one night. As soon as I woke up I got a major shadow. Subsequently, I consumed a shit load of painkillers as a preventative measure, as I knew I would be hit hard for the next few days, and I was! I dont believe that irregular sleeping causes clusters, but, certainly in my case, it is the number one trigger, behind alcohol. If I stay in bed too long I also get an attack. I feel that stress itself does not in any way aggravate clusters, but any consequential effect it may have on sleeping patterns does.
However, this is only my opinion!
Best Wishes,
G.