Why is my partner hypersensitive in the mornings?
January 15, 2020 3:33 PM Subscribe
My partner is in his 30s, male. Generally okay health. Every couple months, though, he will wake up in the morning and feel like his senses are turned up way too high. His blanket and even clothes will feel too sensitive on his skin, the sunlight through the blinds will seem too bright, and noises seem extra loud. The episodes usually last 15-30 minutes, until he gets tired enough to go back to sleep. Has anyone else experienced this and know what it is?
Could this be a migraine?
posted by Ausamor at 3:39 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Ausamor at 3:39 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
I also came in here to say migraine. It's entirely possible to have a migraine without the sort of classic "I have a massive headache" feeling.
posted by BlahLaLa at 3:49 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by BlahLaLa at 3:49 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
Another vote for migraine. I've never had one with pain, mine have always been more like neurological disturbances - aphasia, visual disturbances, sensitivity to various sensations. Mine are unmistakable by the sparkly snake blooming in my field of vision, but not everyone has remarkable visual auras, or might not entirely notice them while in bed just after waking.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:49 PM on January 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 3:49 PM on January 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
If he feels extra energetic while it's happening it could be a brief burst of hypomania.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:52 PM on January 15, 2020
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:52 PM on January 15, 2020
I have a lot of sensory issues outside of my chronic migraines (honestly i assume all neurological problems are somehow tied together in the gross head cheese of the human body) and I get this more than occasionally but less than frequently, separate from morning migraine issues which are also sometimes concurrent. For me this is solely a sensory thing unrelated to migraine triggers and symptoms, and I attribute it to the general horrors of existence and my flesh prison's occasional choice to just scream through time and space like a toddler banging pots and pans together for the sheer joy of making unbearable noise.
As an additional data point, at the times when I had pets (dogs, specifically) in the house and these weird sensory attacks happened, I would be suddenly and extremely allergic to touching or being touched by them, like a wild explosion of hives, which was never an issue at other times (until about 6 years ago when my sensory issues became full time).
posted by poffin boffin at 4:03 PM on January 15, 2020 [10 favorites]
As an additional data point, at the times when I had pets (dogs, specifically) in the house and these weird sensory attacks happened, I would be suddenly and extremely allergic to touching or being touched by them, like a wild explosion of hives, which was never an issue at other times (until about 6 years ago when my sensory issues became full time).
posted by poffin boffin at 4:03 PM on January 15, 2020 [10 favorites]
I wonder if it’s also waking at a bad time in a sleep cycle. I’ve experienced this, and yeah, a handful more minutes can reset something to make getting up possible and sometimes complexly tolerable. Usually in and around migraine times.
posted by tilde at 5:15 PM on January 15, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by tilde at 5:15 PM on January 15, 2020 [4 favorites]
I've always associated that over-sensitive skin sensation with the onset of a cold. I do get the occasional headache-less migraine with scintillating scotoma, though, so perhaps it's all related.
posted by mumkin at 5:25 PM on January 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by mumkin at 5:25 PM on January 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
I have sensory processing disorder and it does change over time for me, kind of in waves, but not as sharp of an on-off as he is describing. I think that getting some occupational therapy for sensory processing would be worth trying.
posted by medusa at 5:28 PM on January 15, 2020
posted by medusa at 5:28 PM on January 15, 2020
This sounds like classic “silent migraine”—that is, migraine without head pain. Because migraine with aura, which this is, is associated with increased risk of stroke, it would be a good idea for him to mention this to his doctor at his next visit.
posted by epj at 6:17 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by epj at 6:17 PM on January 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
I get the migraines without the head pain & as many others have said this is one of the possible symptoms. Go see a doctor, because the first time I mentioned I had these problems to a doctor the first they did was do tests to eliminate a whole range of very serious things it could also be just in case. Not saying it's more serious, saying get a doctor to check just in case.
posted by wwax at 7:44 PM on January 15, 2020
posted by wwax at 7:44 PM on January 15, 2020
Have you seen any of those memes about until-I-get-my-coffee-don't-talk-to-me? My guess is he's irritable because he's only partly awake. Irritability is a medical symptom. There are various levels of sleep that you have probably heard of, but there are also various factors other than the brain wave patterns and eye movements, and they include the change in neurological metabolism that causes a temperature climb, and chemical changes that suppress memory so that you don't remember most of the dreams you have had. Irritability when waking is quite typical. Babies often start shrieking if they spontaneously wake suddenly.
It sounds to me like he's only partly awake and suffering some of the same distress than many insomniacs do when they are desperately trying to go to sleep but the covers are too scratchy somehow, and so they they keep thrashing and waiting for the next time the neighbour on the other side of the wall coughs. Every noise and physical sensation is way too disturbing, even though they were able to ignore all those things and be cozy during the afternoon when they had been sprawled on that same bed using their laptop. So my guess here is a sleep disorder, and that on some level he is conscious and yet his brain is not fully awake or ready to be awake.
I would think that the thing to look at is why is he awake then, when he should still be asleep. If the reaction to it so far has been to tough it out until he can go back to sleep and sleep it off, then perhaps he can work on strategies to avoid waking up earlier than his body can handle. You could look into a sleep study - the simple at-home one is for someone to stay awake in the same room and note if he has restless legs, breathing problems, is snoring etc. There are likely to be some environmental reasons that he is waking up before his body can readily cope with it, such as his malicious and inconsiderate alarm clock informing him he is about to be late for work, or a neighbour idling the truck outside when it warms up, or the furnace going into a day time heat cycle and the room warming up. If you can figure out the environmental reasons I'd work on that. Something like moving his bed so it's not where the vibrations of the neighbour's truck and the too-painful sunlight can reach him could make this stop happening.
posted by Jane the Brown at 4:38 AM on January 16, 2020
It sounds to me like he's only partly awake and suffering some of the same distress than many insomniacs do when they are desperately trying to go to sleep but the covers are too scratchy somehow, and so they they keep thrashing and waiting for the next time the neighbour on the other side of the wall coughs. Every noise and physical sensation is way too disturbing, even though they were able to ignore all those things and be cozy during the afternoon when they had been sprawled on that same bed using their laptop. So my guess here is a sleep disorder, and that on some level he is conscious and yet his brain is not fully awake or ready to be awake.
I would think that the thing to look at is why is he awake then, when he should still be asleep. If the reaction to it so far has been to tough it out until he can go back to sleep and sleep it off, then perhaps he can work on strategies to avoid waking up earlier than his body can handle. You could look into a sleep study - the simple at-home one is for someone to stay awake in the same room and note if he has restless legs, breathing problems, is snoring etc. There are likely to be some environmental reasons that he is waking up before his body can readily cope with it, such as his malicious and inconsiderate alarm clock informing him he is about to be late for work, or a neighbour idling the truck outside when it warms up, or the furnace going into a day time heat cycle and the room warming up. If you can figure out the environmental reasons I'd work on that. Something like moving his bed so it's not where the vibrations of the neighbour's truck and the too-painful sunlight can reach him could make this stop happening.
posted by Jane the Brown at 4:38 AM on January 16, 2020
Babies often start shrieking if they spontaneously wake suddenly.
who amongst us would not
posted by poffin boffin at 5:03 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
who amongst us would not
posted by poffin boffin at 5:03 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
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