Migraines in the evenings

Hi Valencia Naylor,

Thank you for reaching out to us with your question. Chronic pain of any sort is exhausting and debilitating, I'm sorry you are going through this.

If these are new and/or different symptoms, or an change in your migraine attack pattern, it's a good idea to discuss them with the doctor so he can rule out anything more serious.

Many times when we wake with migraine pain, it's an indication of a sleep issue. Sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, and others can trigger morning migraine attacks. I have both restless leg syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder, which definitely contributed to morning pain, cannabis helps. You may want to discuss having a sleep study with your doctor.

By any chance are you taking something on a daily, or near daily basis to help relieve this pain? The thing is if we take migraine medications and/or pain relievers, whether they are over-the-counter or prescription, more than two to three days a week we may end up in a rebound cycle. If we are in rebound, our migraine attacks may be more difficult to treat and get stuck in a cycle of endless pain. Let me share this information on rebound with you; https://migraine.com/living-migraine/stop-rebound-headaches/.

I hope this helps,
Nancy

my migraines also have the exact same symptoms. A couple questions:

1) do you find that on days where you predominantly rest laying down with a pillow or something supporting your head that you don't get migraines or headaches?

2) do you have a stiff neck? Note that a stiff neck may or may not be associated with neck pain. I don't have any neck pain but apparently my neck is always clenched.

3) What is your occupation/ what do you spend most of day doing? Do you spend the majority of your work day sitting down or standing up in a specific position?

3) do you feel rested after sleep? Do you have any difficulty falling or staying asleep? Has a bed partner ever mentioned that you have pauses in your breath when you sleep?

4) are you in any migraine preventative medications. You're certainly a candidate for prevention.

5) is the pain localized to one side of the head or is it all over?

Would be curious as to your answers for the questions above.

They're great questions that if your doctor doesn't ask you theirselves you should share. You should absolutely make sure you develop a relationship with your PCP and book a neurologist ASAP. Neurologist usually book 3-4 months out.

If you have level 7/10 or above pain I'd also recommend you to urgent care (I find that urgent care at large teaching and research hospitals is the best) during a flare up and asking for a complete neurological exam. This takes 5 minutes and could catch something more severe causing your symtoms.

We can discuss here everything but there's no substitute for a good doctor!!!!!!

-Carlos