Brain cysts can develop pretty much anywhere on the brain. Wherever your brain cyst is may create different symptoms than someone else's cyst. One thing I found with my posterior fossa arachnoid cyst (a cyst on the back of the brain), was that there were an array of different symptoms at night time versus during the day.
At night the cyst was putting pressure on the brainstem and cerebellum and this caused extremity numbness and breathing problems (apnea). I also could not lay on a regular pillow. As my cyst grew, so did my head's distaste for a regular pillow. I would wake up with my head aching beyond belief.
I started shopping around for a different pillow. I tried contoured pillows, tempurpedic pillows, you name it, I tried it. I hesitated to try a down pillow, but as my last resort, I did, and I have not been without my down pillow since back in 2003. A down pillow gives so much more than a regular pillow. I also got the softest down pillow available. It is the only pillow to this day, that I can lay my head on. Especially since now I also have the soreness of where my surgery was, an incision on the back, left side of my head and my shunt also causes discomfort lying on it. My shunt is on the right side of my head, behind my right ear.
When I was going through all the numbness and apnea, I realized that sleeping all the way down on one pillow, was causing a lot of my night time symptoms. The more I slept up right, the less symptoms I had and the better of a day I would have the next day from being able to sleep. I looked for an adjustable bed, but because they were so expensive, my mother and I came up with a way to adjust pillows to make an elevation for my head. I didn't just stack the pillows, but interlaced them, so they climbed to an incline. If an incline helps, you may want to try starting lower and adding to it as needed. You don't want to make your neck sore. Sleeping at an incline saved me until I was able to get my surgery. I did not have near the numbness I did prior to my incline and my apnea was cut way down.
Listen to your body. Get tuned in with it and read up on your type of cyst as much as you can. Your body will a lot of times tell you what is wrong. When my body went numb at night, I realized that your nervous system branches out from your brain stem. So I knew that my brain stem had pressure on it and it only made sense knowing that my cyst was right on the back of the brain where the brain stem is. I just thought about the facts, what I knew and what I learned.
I hope this information helps even one person out there. As I think of other ideas and tips I will let the readers know!
God bless everyone out there living with and dealing with a brain cyst. You are all strong and brave and you can get through whatever you are required to get through. Get in touch with your inner self, try to stay calm and try to think clearly. Remember, your body will tell you what is going on, you just have to stop and listen.