i never had sleep issues before head injury and I always sleep soundly.

Now I take Elavil 10 mg and I sleep for about 10 hours and only some nights I wake up once to use the bathroom and go back to sleep immediately.

When I was at the hospital for 3 days probably they measured my O2 levels too constantly. They didn't say there was any issues with that except my heart rate goes very low during night may be in 30's. My heart rate always low even before the injury. Now I am confused even increasing Elavil dosage can help.

I guess may be getting Oximeter like Mark mentioned may be one way to find out.

The home oximeter or pulse-oximeter will track your heart rate too. A low pulse with good O2 may be a concern. In the hospital, you were likely sleeping in a reclined bed. This can help with breathing as it causes a better neck posture.

Just some ideas for consideration.

btw, I had a bad bout with low blood pressure and pulse after a ride back from California. I had fallen asleep in the truck with my head falling forward. I know that this position is very problematic for me. I was just learning this issue at the time. I spent the next week with BP of 70-80/40-50 with pulse rate in the 40's. I could barely get out of a chair.

Mark : You are right, I was at slightly reclining position. Now I started to sleep with kind of reclining position with lots of pillows.

My blood pressure is between 120 -132/70 -85 most of the time.

I believe I have low pulse rate with good O2. Why is that a concern you think?

My neurologist put me on Elavil for insomnia/headaches for PCS. It did not knock out the headache until he combined it with gabapentin. After being on Elavil for about 4 or 5 months, I wanted off because it gave me such a short fuse. It made me grumpy all the time. The gabapentin helped with my headaches (600mg) for about 2 weeks, and then they came back.

I've been reading about people's neurologists as well - I think I got lucky with mine, although I had some issues on top of the PCS after my head injury. I'm glad he didn't write me off - especially because my headaches and the tingling in my face that I experienced after my head injury turned into a textbook case of trigeminal neuralgia about a month ago - my original head injury headaches were also a form of neuralgia (shooting pain down the scalp of my head).

I'm also that idiot that never rested afterwards and didn't give my CNS a chance to fully heal. They aren't sure how it happened - it could be a vein/artery compressed between my left TMJ and nerve root (the TMJ dislocated on the right side and put a lot of pressure on the left, etc) or just from displacement of the veins/arteries in my head. Hahha, I remember the first time I was blowdrying my hair after my head injury and had my head flipped down and I looked in the mirror - I nearly screamed, holy cow where did that vein come from and why is it so big?! It was the strangest thing to me.. suddenly the veins in my head being in different positions.. and seemingly bigger?

But anyways, you never know what your noggin is doing or what that headache could turn into (head injuries can develop into primary stabbing headaches OR migraines) so it's a good idea to have a neurologist that will continue to treat your headaches (as well as YOU) until you are symptom free (hopefully).

Those of you with longer hair might consider some changes in your hair routine. The motion to flip your hair either to the front or to the back again can be enough of a motion to your brain that it can cause symptoms to persist or relapse.

I sort of cringe when I see women flip their head from side to side to get hair out of their face. This same motion would stop me in my tracks.

Remember the term Sub-Concussive impact. Those are the motions that cause subtle traumas to the brain that do not cause immediate symptoms but combine to cause much more serious symptoms.

On a scale from 1 to 10, you may have suffered a 6 or 7 concussion and needed to recover. Later, you can suffer multiple 1 or 2 sub-concussive impacts that combine to cause symptoms much worse than the 7 concussion. That hair flip may only be a 1 or 2 but can cause havoc over the long run. There is sound science to back up this claim.

I wonder if that's why I'm in this situation. I felt fine a week and a half after my hit and then after I attempted a mile and a half run I've been struggling ever since.