getting migraines while sleeping

zaza:  Welcome to Healing Well.  I saw your post and can totally relate.  When my migraines started (last June), they were almost the same as yours.  I would go to bed perfectly fine and then start dreaming that either someone was hitting me in the head with steel pipes or that someone was shooting me in the head.  I would then wake up vomiting and with a severe, horrible migraine and felt like I had a hot fireplace poker sticking in my eye.  I have spent the  past year and several months in constant contact with my neurologist and with trying different medications.  My migraines are happening less but the severity remains about the same.  I truly believe the migraines would still be happening constantly except for all the "pre-treatment meds" the neurologist has me taking.   I now take my abortive meds at the first sign of a headache or when I know the barometric  pressure is predicted to change.  I also take the abortives after working all night and before I go to sleep.  So far, I have been able to control the headaches pretty well but have still ended up in the ER about once a month.  Usually, this is because I have chosen not to take my meds to see if "they are really working".  Stupid, I know!

One difference that I see between what you are suffering with and what my headaches were doing is that once I was able to get to the ER and get rid of the headache, I would be headache-free for several days.  I have never had the day after day headache like you and others seem to have.  Now, if I didn't go to the ER and get meds, maybe mine would be continuous - I am just a wimp and can't deal with the vomiting, light sensitivity and pain for that long - especially knowing that if I go to the ER, I can be over it in 3-4 hours.

My recommendation is to get an appointment with a good neurologist who deals with headaches.  Sounds like to me you might need preventative meds, abortive meds and rescue meds but a headache specialist would certainly be able to evaluate and treat you better than anyone.

Good Luck!

Hi Ann
No i don't wake at the same time. Sometimes it's one time or can be up to 3 times carring over into the morning hours>. The attacks last anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours. Since i have hade this last episode i have been been admitted into the hosp. for several days where the drugs me up enough to get the headace pain under control. This is the third episode for me which the last one was a year and a half ago. Then they had me on everything from depakote to topomax. I still don't know what took them away then, didn't care as long as they went away. Didn't think about it much until i started suffering with mild headaches all day long until they hit with the migraines at night. The fiercet seems to be working for me after the second one. I got out of the hosp the thirteenth of august and devoured 60 pills.When the attacks happen the pain is so intense that i can't open my eye because of the pain, no other symptoms i guess the eye and nose runs. My pain is so intense that my scalp is tender to the touch afterwards. For the last few days i have felt a little better and the last two night i didn't have a migraine at night but did have one in the evening prior to going to bed. I do find that a hot compress seems to pacify me a little but then battery acid might work (LOL). i try everything. I have been on vacation since June. I work for the school system and i go back on tuesday i am exausted, all i want to do is sleep.

Zaza:  I just wanted to tell you that when I have a migraine, it is usually behind my left eye.  I used to think my weirdest sympton was that on the side of my pain, that side of nose started running.  Also, the eye on that side started watering.  Weird.  I have always told every doctor (whether it is the ER doc or my neurologist) about this but no one seems too concerned.  Maybe it is just a normal symptom??? 

My last migraine (that I ended up in the ER for), I had a hpyper-sense of smell.  I could literally smell people who were walking by my room - I could smell their perfume, food they were carrying, even their toothpaste.  It was so weird and horrid.  When the doc came in, it almost made me die smelling his hands from the waterless cleanser.

What meds are you on now?

Hope you are feeling good today.

Hi zaza,

It sounds like you have the symptoms for Clusterheadache not migraine!!!! - I would point out that I am not a Doctor or qualified to diagnose but I do some voluntary work with Clusterheadache sufferers.

Have a look at www.clusterheadaches.com and take the cluster quiz there and see what you think!

Clusterheadache can be triggered by strong smells and alcohol, and they are short lasting headaches up to 2 -3 hours!! The pain is very intense and the drooping eye (unable to open) and watery eye and blocked nose are autonomic symptoms that go with it!

The abortive treatment for Clusterheadache is injectable Imitrex and Oxygen! Clusterheadache can be Episodic comes in Clusters of a few weeks to a few months (hence the name Clusterheadache) and then with breaks for a year or more or even as little as six months!

CH can also be Chronic and that means every day or night as the case may be!!!

If you want anymore details please feel free to email me!


Baseballmomof3 - this may apply to you too! - again please feel free to email me!

As always discuss these things with your Neuros and preferably find a Neuro who specialises in Headache. Most other Neuros do not understand Clusterheadache in the same way!!

Hope this helps, take care both of you

Ann