The "morning" after a night shift, that is....after going to bed, finally, and waking up.
Whenever I sleep in the daytime...whether it is after working night shift (7P-7A) or even if I'm ill and I nap in the daytime, I get a tremendous headache. I'm fine (tired, but fine) after working a night shift...I go to bed and sleep for 6 hours (or longer, doesn't matter how long) and when I wake up I have an excruciating headache, from the base of my skull to my eyebrows. It doesn't go away until I go to bed when it is dark and wake up again the next morning. Then I'll just have a residual "soreness" in my head. It doesn't seem to be a matter of sleep deprivation because it will happen even if I sleep in the daylight *after* a night's sleep (such as when I've been ill and stay in bed and sleep). Or if I try to take a nap before going in for a night shift.
I'll have photophobia and "sound-aphobia" (what's the word for that?!). It's terrible. I thought maybe it was dehydration so I drank water all night long during work. Didn't help. I try to eat something before I go to bed too (a bowl of cereal or something). I've even tried to prophylactically hit it with Advil before I go to bed. Didn't work.
Right now I only have to do 2 night shifts in a 6 week schedule. It may be changing to 5 or 6 night shifts.
Does anyone know WHY this happens? Or what I can do to avoid it? I can't live like that if I have to work more nights.
