There’s no good time to be hit by a migraine assault. However waking as much as throbbing ache (and presumably even nausea and vomiting) is an precise nightmare. That’s the irritating actuality for lots of people residing with this situation, Tanya Bilchik, MD, a neurology specialist at Yale New Haven Hospital and assistant professor at Yale Drugs, tells SELF. Roughly two-thirds of individuals with migraine jolt awake from signs occasionally, usually within the late evening or early morning.1,2 (Or *simply* sufficient time to comprehend you must be up for work in a couple of hours.) What’s worse? Disrupted sleep can generally set off even extra episodes—locking you in an exhausting pain-sleep loop.3
There’s excellent news (sure, there’s some): You’ll be able to take easy steps to make these impolite interruptions much less hellish or more likely to occur. Strive these knowledgeable suggestions.
Have your go-to “rescue” meds useful.
Although a migraine assault would possibly seem to be a singular occasion, it’s really one among a complete of 4 completely different symptom phases. Within the hours and even days earlier than one strikes, you would possibly expertise prodrome and aura. That’s principally a preview stage the place you might really feel fatigued, nauseated, or delicate to lights and smells, or have bizarre issues taking place in your imaginative and prescient, like gentle flashes and blind spots. As SELF has beforehand reported, these are sometimes warning indicators that an assault (or section three) is en route—and a agency reminder to achieve for meds ASAP. (Postdrome, the fourth section, is the post-pain hangover.)
In fact, you won’t know you’re experiencing these items once you’re mid-snooze, Juliette Preston, MD, director of the Oregon Well being & Sciences College Headache Heart, tells SELF. “By the point you get up, you’re already in a full-blown migraine [attack],” she notes. That’s why you would possibly discover that your nocturnal ache is extra excruciating than your daytime episodes, she provides—your signs have progressed and are extra extreme.4,5
The underside line: Be able to deal with the ache ASAP along with your go-to “rescue” meds, Dr. Preston urges. These would possibly embody prescriptions, like triptans, which enhance serotonin ranges, inflicting the blood vessels that get dilated throughout assaults to slender. Your doc may additionally advocate ergot derivatives, which bind to serotonin receptors and cut back ache signaling within the mind.
If you happen to can, get your fingers on prescription nasal spray, Dr. Preston says, which usually works faster than drugs.6 “You will have much less time to behave, so one thing that will get into you quicker is healthier,” Dr. Preston says. Some nasal spray triptans, for example, can begin to relieve discomfort in as little as quarter-hour. Your doc may additionally advocate OTC ache relievers, like ibuprofen. Remember the fact that you might want a mixture of remedies, Dr. Bilchik says, since you’re at a later stage of severity, and coverings are usually simplest when taken early.
Take the sting off with chilly or warmth.
Your rescue meds gained’t begin working the second you’re taking them—and also you would possibly really feel determined for aid till they do, Dr. Preston says. As SELF has beforehand reported, chilly remedy—like sliding a type of TikTok-famous ice caps over your head—can generally assist. Consultants aren’t fully positive why it’s efficient. Nonetheless, they believe it helps lower the discharge of inflammatory neurochemicals, slender dilated blood vessels, block ache indicators, and redirect the mind’s consideration away from the throbbing—all of which may (theoretically) reduce aching.