As you may be aware, after the migraine there is no such thing as sleeping schedule any more – after 3 days in bed, trying to sleep through the pain it’s challenging to convince the body to get a nice sleep in one go. Also I was so terribly dehydrated, that I didn’t even feel it – I wasn’t thirsty when I went to sleep.
I need to diverge here a bit, to explain some bits and pieces about me. Migraine is not my main nor the most difficult condition. I live with rare genetic condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, the hypermobile variant. This is a connective tissue disorder caused by genes malfunction which causes the body to fail to produce enough of collagen to supply it everywhere, where needed. And it’s needed everywhere. One of the problems it’s causing is that tissues don’t maintain proper permeability so people with EDS have to hydrate more than healthy people. And usually it’s quite easy to remember already, as I got my diagnosis in October 2021 – plenty of time to educate myself on how does this work.
So now, knowing that I f course was drinking water when episode was on, but I did not track how much I do drink. Apparently not enough. So Sunday to Monday night I got as little as around 2 hours of sleep due to dehydration. Which I realised way later – after reaching certain level of hydration I felt very thirsty. It was surprising to me, that after drinking around 300 ml of water (I drink water because I know I need it, without always waiting to feel thirsty) and a few minutes later I felt like I’ve walked through the desert. At first I was surprised, and of course drank more water. And then it hit me, that only after reaching bare minimum I was able to feel thirst.
I felt exhausted, only 3 spoons for the day, and it is working day. No shower, anything that can be skipped – was skipped that day. After lunch I started to feel dizzy, decided to take a break from work – not that I was super productive anyway – but I just laid in bed for 2 hours and could not fall asleep at all. Still too dehydrated. Before going to sleep I had almost 2 litres of water – first time in ages I felt asleep in minutes – the cat didn’t manage to find comfortable position on me and I was already logged in to sleep world.
