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Chronic severe nocturnal hypnic headaches

Sleep Health | Last Active: 2 days ago | Replies (246)

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@projfan

Interesting. I recently discovered that my migraines that start during the night seem to have been, at least in part, triggered by low glucose (hypoglycemia). I was wearing a continuous glucose monitor for another reason, and this pattern just popped out of the data. Not dangerously low, but potentially symptomatically low. So I started eating something with protein and fats before going to bed (an egg, a bit of turkey plus nuts, whatever). The monitor showed a consistently higher level of glucose during the night -- not a lot higher, but higher, and I'm down to less than half the morning migraines I had previously experienced. I'm a senior, too, and have had migraines my entire life. This particular pattern started a few years ago, and had been getting worse over time. That's actually compatible with avoiding simple carbs (desserts) in the evening. So maybe? Worth a shot.

The whole issue of trigger foods is a swamp -- just too custom to the individual and too many possibilities. It becomes a matter of creating your own elimination diet and obsessively keeping some kind of diary to track both the food and the headaches to look for correlations that might actually be causal. A time-of-day pattern is really helpful, because you can start with your evening foods.

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Replies to "Interesting. I recently discovered that my migraines that start during the night seem to have been,..."

I have had hypnic headaches for at least 9 years. I have tried amatriptilene, topomax, norotriptilene, coffee,indomethcin, Qulipta ,melatonin and nurtex. Some didn’t work at all ,some worked sporadically, some made it worse. I average 15 to 18 nights per month. Last October and November I thought they were gone for good. Feel so blessed to wake up refreshed. But then they returned. I am so sick of feeling drugged when they do work and if they don’t the headaches intensify. A non drug fix for me is to stationary bike for 25 minutes in the middle of the night. The headache leaves but I am awake for the next hour or so. Occasionally I take sumatriptan, the only thing that takes it away other than the exercise. The headaches are on the right side and not severe .