How much sleep do you need?
 

Ever since my injury, I've been sleeping more, even as the quality of my sleep has improved. For the first couple of months, I slept poorly, with lots of insomnia and anxiety. Now I'm sleeping better (thankfully), but I find my body/brain still pines for a good long sleep each night.

I can easily go to sleep at 11 pm and wake up at 9 am. Even if you subtract an hour or so for sleep quality issues (tossing and turning or waking once or twice at night), that's still nine hours. When I return to work, I will need to get up earlier, but right now I feel very uncompromising about my sleep schedule - it took so long to resume sleeping semi-normally, and sleep seems like one of the most important aspects of recovery.

Does anyone else find they need more (or less) sleep since their injury? If you have to get up early in the morning for work or other reasons, do you simply go to bed earlier at night?

that's great you're getting your rest in
 

Hi,

It sounds like you are doing a lot better. That is great!

I noticed that when I got to the point of being able to rest for a long period of time I started to see the most improvement.

Just let your body sleep as much as you can.

I remember for a while I would sleep about 10 hours every night. After a long day sometimes it could be 12 hours!

Looking back, that was the best thing I did for my PCS. Take advantage of your body wanting to rest.

Prioritize your sleep if you have something scheduled; going to bed earlier helps or naps if possible.

Best wishes!

I didn't sleep good or much for about a year. Now I have better quality sleep sometimes and can still sleep 9-10 hours. I don't need the "have to go to sleep now" naps throughout the day anymore (except maybe 1-2 times a month).

I'd love extended sleep to help w/recovery (not to slack off).

I try to get 8 hrs., but last night ended up w/6.

Part of the challenge is housemates.

I get about 6 sometimes 7 hours...but wake at least once...sometimes 2 times

I'm finding the extra sleep helpful, but I will need to make some serious adjustments when I return to work. I was never really an early-morning person, and am even less so now. I feel much better if I sleep until 9 (or even 10!) am than if I get up at 7 am. In normal circumstances I would feel a twinge of guilt about this, but for the time being I'm just going to allow my body do what it wants.

Interestingly enough, I have not struggled with any insomnia. Quite the opposite, actually. I find my symptoms are always worse at the end of the day when I am fatigued. I have been sleeping 9-10 hours per night with no disturbances. I used to sleep 8 hours per night.

i used to get like 7 or 8 and that was plenty. now i get like 10 hours and still i feel like im tired fatigued

over 2 years since my initial head injury and i still feel like I never get enough sleep for my head.

If I don't have 8 hours, I'm loopy and my headache is out of control, my vision's out of focus. over 12 hours is normal for me and I still wake up at 6pm sometimes... One thing you might want to do is jot down how many hours you get in a journal! See your patterns and how you feel the day you slept more or less!

I hope you recover soon!
All the best,
Corinne

With my first two concussions, I had a lot of trouble sleeping. I was only able to get maybe 4-6 hours a night even though I was very tired and I would often wake up several times during the night. With my third, fourth and fifth concussions I noticed that I slept more normally but I had nightmares like crazy for some reason. I can't say for sure if the two are related, it's just something I noticed.