Treating Sleep Disorders Due To Head Trauma?
In 2006 I had a car accident and had trauma to the left side of my head in the area right above where my ear is. I had a hairline fracture in my skull. I had a cat scan done and there was no brain injury sustained. Since my injury I’ve been experiencing fatigue throughout the day and trouble sleeping. Before the accident I use to sleep well with no problems and would wake up the next morning with energy all day. Now I wake up a few times during the night and only get about 5 hours of sleep, once I’m awake I cannot go back to sleep. I’ve been doing some research online and it seems quite common for people to suffer from sleep disorders after experiencing head trauma. Therefore, I believe my fatigue and various other symptoms that I use to never experience before the accident, one being irritability, is due to not getting enough sleep at night. With the research I have conducted, I have come to the conclusion that I have two options: Number one is to treat myself with time released melatonin (I believe my circadian sleep rhythms may have been disrupted), or number two going to see a sleep specialist/or maybe a neurologist instead?
Any advice or tips would be much appreciated.
why not do both? try the meatonin, in the meantime schedule an appointment with a family doctor, whom will refer you to the apprpriate specialist if needed.