When the trademark throbbing from a migraine finally lifts, the relief is profound. But for many people regularly stricken with these potentially debilitating headaches, their distress isn’t over just because the pain ends. Instead, a distinct phase of migraine called the postdrome leaves them feeling achy, weary, dazed, and confused — symptoms eerily similar to another affliction altogether.
Dubbed the “migraine hangover,” this constellation of post-headache symptoms is remarkably common, following up to 80% of migraine attacks, according to research published in Neurology. Scientists are increasingly turning their focus to this previously underrecognized component of migraine, according to Dr. Paul Rizzoli, clinical director of the Graham Headache Center at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital.
“Not knowing it’s an accepted part of migraine, patients come up with some creative ways to tell us about their postdrome symptoms — they feel washed out, their head feels hollow, or they feel like they have a hangover but weren’t even drinking,” Dr. Rizzoli explains. “Until recent years, science hadn’t paid attention to this facet of the syndrome, but it’s a natural progression from focusing on the problem as a whole.”
The four phases of migraine
The typical migraine can be a wretched experience, with stabbing head pain joined by nausea, brain fog, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound, among other symptoms. Nearly 16% of Americans are affected by migraines, which strike women at nearly twice the rate as men. Severe headaches are also one of the top reasons for emergency room visits.
Spanning hours to days, migraine headaches can include four clear phases, each with its own set of symptoms. The pre-pain prodrome and aura phases may include various visual changes, extremes of irritability, difficulty speaking, or numbness and tingling, while the headache itself can feel like a drill is working its way through the skull.
Lingering migraine symptoms: The hangover
After that ordeal, one to two days of postdrome symptoms may sound tame by comparison, Dr. Rizzoli says. But the lingering fogginess, exhaustion, and stiff neck can feel just as disabling as the headache that came before. Since migraine is believed to act as a sort of electrical storm activating neurons in the brain, it’s possible that migraine hangover results from “some circuits being electrically or neurochemically exhausted,” Dr. Rizzoli says. “It just takes time for the brain to return to normal function, or even replace some chemicals that have been depleted in the process.”
But much is still unknown about migraine postdrome, he adds, and research has found no consistent association between factors such as the type of migraine medication taken and duration of any subsequent hangover.
Tips to ease a migraine hangover
Following these steps regularly may help you ward off lingering symptoms after a migraine:
- Drink plenty of water.
- Practice good headache hygiene by maintaining regular eating and sleeping patterns and easing stress.
- If possible, try to lighten your load for next 24 hours after the headache pain ends.
- Stop taking pain medicine once the headache is gone.
For migraine hangover sufferers so distracted by their inability to return to normal activities even after migraine pain lifts, physicians sometimes prescribe medications typically meant for conditions such as memory loss, depression, or seizures. While they may differ from the usual drugs used to treat migraine, some of these medicines have been observed to help postdrome syndrome or act as a preventive for headache.
“Think of the headache you just had like you’ve run a marathon or done some other stressing activity,” Dr. Rizzoli says. “Your body needs to recover, which is not the same as staying in bed with the lights off. Ease up, but stay functional.”
About the Author
Maureen Salamon, Executive Editor, Harvard Women’s Health WatchMaureen Salamon is executive editor of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. She began her career as a newspaper reporter and later covered health and medicine for a wide variety of websites, magazines, and hospitals. Her work has … See Full BioView all posts by Maureen Salamon
Bible verses for today’s meditation and inspiration: Matthew E. McLaren
2 Corinthians 13:9 For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong; this we also pray for, that you be made complete.
Colossians 1:28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.
Colossians 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.
2 Corinthians 10:15-16 not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be, within our sphere, enlarged even more by you, so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another.
2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;
2 Peter 3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Ephesians 1:17-18 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
Ephesians 3:16-19 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, read more
Recommended contacts for prayer request and Bible study
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