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Chronic severe nocturnal hypnic headaches
Headache & Migraine | Last Active: Jan 22 6:15am | Replies (287)Comment receiving replies
I’ve just started 50 mg Indocin at night for hypnic headaches that occur every night. It is working for me so far. The question is how long can I take indocin.
The most interesting thing I heard from a new headache specialist (who is not a neurologist) is that we headache sufferers may have more than one type of headache.
If I get a headache in the daytime it can be a migraine or tension headache that requires a different med. For me Imitrex works. I didn’t realize that I could have different types of headaches.
I’ve always had migraines but daily middle of the night headaches started a year ago and I was told by a neurologist that they were medication overuse headaches from too much Imitrex.
I researched things myself and determined the 3 AM nightly headaches were hypnic headaches.
That was confirmed as likely by a different doc who prescribed the Indocin.
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@docb99 I am sorry you are dealing with nocturnal headaches and glad you researched it and found info on Hypnic headaches. How severe are your nocturnal headaches? Did your MD discuss other options prior to Indomethicin like Topiramate, higher dose melatonin, bedtime coffee/caffiene)? I'm glad Indomethacin is working for you. It is an amazing relief not to be awakened from sleep by a severe and debilitating headache(s). @mlpults is correct in that indomethicin can wreak havoc on our GI systems. I had tried every other option prior to using it going on 19 years, nightly. After developing bad side effects to Indomethacin (and still had crippling daily daytime migranes) I visited Mayo Clinic Neurologist to help me since Indo. and my migraine meds did not always work (and I end up in ER). He does not like Indomethecin due to serious side effects, but since my nocturnal headaches are likely a mix of cluster headache (occurs four times nightly same times, if not prevented) and hypnic (cyclic, occuring same times 4 episodes during the night), he realizes that Indo is my only option for prevention of the Nocurnal headaches. I take an extra medication daily (Pantoprozole, brand is Protonix) to prevent gastric bleeding and irritation/inflammation caused by the Indo. Since adding that to my regimen, I have had no more gastric issues from Indo. Before adding the Protonix, I had a severe bout of GI distress (hard to move or breathe) and had to go into MD office for long infusion (I dont' recall what was infused). That said, if your MD has not considered other potential preventatives for Hypnic headaches, he/she might want to consider something like topiramate, high dose melotonin, caffiene or coffee prior to bedtime. I currently take melatonin in addition to Protonix and Indomethacin but stopped drinking bedtime coffee after learning from my smartwatch that I was experiencing 17 nightly "awakenings" with caffiene prior to bedtime, and about 3-4 without. I hope you continue to feel well and pray that you have no bad side effects to the Indomethecin, or other treatment choices.