What is the course of a migraine attack?
What is the course of a migraine attack?
What is the course of a migraine attack?
Without medication…
A severe headache develops quickly during a migraine attack. It typically lasts for a few hours, then fades quickly.
The red dashed line in the graph at the left shows you how strong the pain is over time. The higher the line is, the more intense the pain is.
Notice in the graph how the pain from a migraine attack gets worse if no medication is taken.
So, during a migraine attack, it is best to take the right medication… and as EARLY as possible!
A severe headache develops quickly during a migraine attack. It typically lasts for a few hours, then fades quickly.
The red dashed line in the graph at the left shows you how strong the pain is over time. The higher the line is, the more intense the pain is.
Notice in the graph how the pain from a migraine attack gets worse if no medication is taken.
So, during a migraine attack, it is best to take the right medication… and as EARLY as possible!
With medication…
Now slide the yellow bar on the second graph at the left. You can see that the intensity of a migraine attack can be changed using medication.
Taking right medication as early as possible when you notice a migraine attack can prevent the pain (the red line) from becoming too much too fast.
Now slide the yellow bar on the second graph at the left. You can see that the intensity of a migraine attack can be changed using medication.
Taking right medication as early as possible when you notice a migraine attack can prevent the pain (the red line) from becoming too much too fast.
If medication is taken too late, it will probably only be able to lessen pain a little bit and it probably won’t be able to change how long the attack lasts much. It won’t make a difference whether you take the medication a little too late or much too late during the attack. Too late is too late!
IMPORTANT: Taking more medication later won’t help either!
While one person’s migraine attacks may be similar each time, they can be very different from person to person.
It may surprise you to know that a migraine has many phases, in addition to the headache phase.
Learn more about migraine phases by clicking through each phase below.
Migraine phases
Click on each of the four phases below for all you need to know.
- Prephase
- Aura
- Headache
- Recovery
Prephase
More than half of all young people who experience migraines have symptoms that signal a migraine attack has begun.
This is because a migraine attack actually begins before you get a headache.
These changes that appear before a headache are called “prodromal symptoms”. We’ll just call them “precursors” here.
Precursors vary from person to person. Often people have two or more.
Typical precursors
- Pale face and/ or dark circles under the eyes
- Feeling incredibly tired
- Feeling cranky or irritable
- Feeling anxious or on edge
- Sensitivity to noise
- Yawning frequently
- Sensitivity to light
- Nausea
Once you’ve figured out the precursors of your migraine, you can react more quickly when the headache starts. That’s why doing the detective work is worth it!
Helpful Tip:
Ask the people closest to you if they notice anything different about you before the attack starts. Sometimes, you might not notice the first signs yourself, but a parent, sibling, or close friend might.
The best way to get to know your migraine precursors is to use a diary. You can see what a headache diary looks like here…
Aura
For some young people with migraines, an “aura” develops just before or during the headache phase of a migraine.
Typical aura symptoms
The most common aura symptom is changes to your vision that affect your ability to see.
- Seeing flickering, flashing, bright, and/or spinning light
- Seeing jagged or wavy lines
- Things you look at seeming “hazy” or distorted
- Loss of part of your vision (i.e., you only see half of what’s in front of you)
- Tingling or numbness in the hand
- Difficulty moving arms or legs (rare)
- Seeing, smelling, feeling things that are not there (very rare)
- Speech problems (very rare)
It is common for the aura to only occur on one side. For example, only one eye sees things strangely or only one hand tingles.
The aura can last from just a few minutes to up to an hour. Afterwards, the aura symptoms disappear completely. Headaches during a migraine often get more intense after the aura and last longer than the aura.
The good thing about an aura is that it helps you to quickly recognize that a migraine attack is approaching. Often, the bounce test is unnecessary.
IMPORTANT: If you do have a migraine with an aura, the aura won’t necessarily occur with every single migraine attack.
Even if they sound frightening at first, you don’t have to be afraid of auras! They are quite harmless.
You can learn even more about auras in the expert knowledge section.
Have you heard the story of Alice in Wonderland?
If you have, you might remember that she experienced many funny and strange things. Sometimes, the things that happen in an aura can seem very similar to Alice’s experiences. In fact, one specific type of aura was named after this story.
“Alice in Wonderland Syndrome” is the name given to an aura when people see things around them as bigger, smaller, moving more slowly or quickly than they really are. These auras are most often described by young people and less often by adults.
Headache
This is the phase when the migraine headache itself begins.
It is explained in more detail in the video linked below (click here then come back to this page to keep reading!):
At a glance
- Strong, sudden headache that usually lasts for several hours, but can be longer.
- The pain often feels like it’s pulsing, pressing, squeezing, or piercing.
- Adults usually have pain just on one side of the head. Young people report pain on both sides of their head or in the middle of the forehead.
Other symptoms
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Sensitivity to light and sound
Recovery
When the headache phase is over, you often feel a bit weak and “out of sorts” for a while.
If you end up going to sleep during the headache phase, because of the pain, you may not even notice the recovery phase.
You already know so much about migraines. Now, let’s figure out what you can do during an attack:
How do you treat a migraine?
How do migraines develop?
Continue here for helpful tips for dealing with a migraine attack.
Click below to go back and review the information about how a migraine attack develops.