It's kind of hard to say since each person feels pain a little differently. For me it gradually got worse over a period of a few months until I couldn't stand it anymore and went to my PCP who setup an appointment with a Mayo rheumatologist. My wife pushed me to the appointment in a wheel chair because I was unable to walk due to the pain. After seeing the rheumatologist in the morning he prescribed the 20 mg prednisone which we picked up at the Mayo pharmacy and then we went to lunch and I took my first prednisone tablet. My appointment was at 2:30 in the afternoon and I was able to walk to the appointment and I felt great. I really couldn't believe how fast it worked to make the pain go away. The one thing my PCP and the rheumatologist asked was if I had any pain or tenderness in the scalp or temple areas because they were concerned I might also have Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA). Fortunately for me, I didn't have GCA.

Here are a couple of articles I thought you might find helpful.
-- Diet and Lifestyle Changes That Can Aid in the Treatment of Polymyalgia Rheumatica: https://arthritissj.com/diet-and-lifestyle-changes-that-can-aid-in-the-treatment-of-polymyalgia-rheumatica/
-- Patients' views on the causes of their polymyalgia rheumatica: a content analysis of data from the PMR Cohort Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5278275/