I wake up with a headache probably five or six days a week.  It is so frustrating to go to bed feeling fine and then wake up with a migraine!  Sometimes if I get right up, take some aspirin and drink a cup of strong coffee that will stop it.  If that doesn't work then I have to move on to Fiorinal or an Imitrex injection, because if the aspirin/coffee duo doesn't help then it is headed on toward a major migraine.  I've tried different pillows, different mattress, an air cleaner in my bedroom, etc. and nothing helps.  My doctor just says he doesn't know.  Suggested I take a muscle relaxer at bedtime but that made no difference, either.  If anyone has an answer I, too, would love to hear it!

Teri Robert

2/ 3/10 11:35am

Please read my response to kcass.

 

If your doctor didn't have any clues and didn't ask you about your sleep, it may well be time for a new doctor!

 

Teri

Wow - I have the same situation as the first writer!  I would also love to hear others comments/suggestions.  In addition to what she mentioned, I've also tried sleeping on my back with a heating pad between my shoulders and slightly up my neck (to relax my shoulders).  I've also tried sleeping with a small pillow-sized ice pack wrapped in terry cloth under my pillow cover I prevent blood vessel inflamation).  The thing is that I sleep like a rock - that's never been an issue for me luckily.  But sometimes, when I wake up, it's so bad that I feel like my shoulders have been up by my ears all night.  I can't have back massages anymore because my back and neck muscles are always so tender that they hurt to the least bit of pressure.  It is just so darn frustrating when, by evening, the headaches are gone and I feel great.  Then I wake up and the whole process starts again.  I had HAs for 30+ years and have been through every treatment known to man(woman).  I'm on Diamox and Flexeril as preventatives right now, in addition to Wellbutrin and low dosage Xanax.  I'm not sure if the flexeril is really helping but I have tried to wean myself off of the Diamox (with my neurologist's instruction) and I got worse so those may be doing something for me.  I've tried Topamax and all I got with that was a lot of side effects.

Cynthia

2/10/10 2:04am

Hi Karen,

 

I have been on Topomax and Nortitrypltiline for some time now, and no relief from my everyday headaches. i wonder from reading your post if I need to speak with my neurologist about switching my medication. I have had headaches/migraines for over 10 years now and it prevents me from doing things with my family. Good luck to you.

For more years than I care to remember I had been awakening with the same "hangover headaches" you described. It is frustrating to start your morning with pain and various OTC meds to try to ease the pain. Over the years and through several neuros, I found mine worsening and turning into all day headaches until they had reached the point that I went to bed with one and I woke up everyday with one. I had jusr given up all hope one day a few months ago when I wrote in here to Terry about my medication frustration and about how mean the neuros had been when she recommended I try a headache specialist as opposed to a regular plain old neurologist. I had always thought if you were a neuro-you probably were a headache specialist. Not the case. I made an appointment, went to see him, he took me off of everything I was on ( which really was terrible, I hated to abandon the only things that made the days bearable) and he proscribed a week of Frova (which I am unsure of whether or not exactly how much that in itself helped. The first two weeks I thought I would die for sure. I guess it was like Detoxing. My morning headaches turned into migraines and I was ill and I had pain in my head that made me wish for the old pain back. But I promise you...after the couple of weeks (i made him give me things to make me sleep as best i could most of the time when I wasn't violebtly ill) I awakened the next morning without a headache for the first time since I can remember in 15 years. I cried and cried. I take pretty large doses of Topamax and Corgaurd (it is a beta blocker) and sometimes I feel a little something trying to creep back in there but it passes. I never thought this day would come. I had tried som very many of the meds on the market, been hospitalized and tried the DHE, tried actupuncture..you name it. I prayed. I would have seen a witch doctor had I known where to find one I was desperate. Terry-if you ever read this, I wrote to you that I did not know how much longer I could make it as my quality of life had diminished, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart! As for the current problem of this dear lady, please do not wait for it to worsen and I know often times medication overuse can worsen the problem. Act now, there is hope! And they can be stopped. If mine could be stopped, and I thought I was out of hope...then yours surely can be stopped. Just keep looking and use this wonderful, wonderful site for help and support. Melody

kcass

2/ 4/10 5:59pm

my doctor today did ask me about my sleep. it has been ok apart from some nightmares that i have been having due to the break in of our house that i discovered alone. we upped the antidepressent that also works with anxiety med, that I am on in hoping that it will help. We also added more magnesium to what i am already taking. I am now taking 3 so thats (128+64mg= 192mg i'm horrible at math in my head) three times a day. this is the first time that we are trying magnesium at night as my doctor is skeptical that the up in amitryptline will actually help. I am excited to try some new things. He is very open and very helpful when I am very open to new things and willing to be flexible. I just got back from inpatient treatment in December so he is willing to stick to what they said but also to make a few adjustments to try to cut down on the morning headaches as well as the afternoon ones.

 

best to all.

kate

good to hear your doctor is open and willing to try new things as each person is different in what they need.  i too had the dreaded "hangover" headaches every morning.  because of those i think i was having rebound headaches due to the OTC drugs i would take to prevent it from turning into a full-blown migraine.  after a trip to the headache and pain clinic where they did nerve block treatments, prescribed norotryptaline (25 mg at bedtime), and added iron, D3, and omega vitamins my mornings are much more pleasant.  if i stay in bed longer than 7-8 hours it is gauranteed i will have a headache regardless.  my doctor also thought that increasing the norotryptaline would not have much effect.  good luck and take care. 

Randy

2/ 9/10 8:35pm

It's really funny that what works for some people doesn't work at all for others. When it comes to medical issues you'd think what works for one would work for all. When it comes to migraines that's hardly the case.

 

I also have frequent morning headaches. Not migraines mind you, but just enough pain to be really irritating. Of course, left untreated they turn into full-blown migraines. But waking up from a night of what was apparently a good night's sleep and having a morning headache makes no sense. I tracked my diet, what happened the day or night before, issues of stress, etc, and have never found a common denominator. It just seems to happen regularly for whatever reason.

 

I sugger from migraine's two or three times every 7 days. I do know in my case getting too much sleep will definitely cause a morning headache. But there have been incidents where I got up with an MH and it went away shortly thereafter on its own, but that's very rare. It almost always requires medication to quell it (in my case, Relpax 40mg). I've tried everything under the sun too. New, old, prescribed, over the counter, accupuncture, massages . . . you name it, I've tried it. Everything that's been mentioned here I've tried it. I've never found anything that causes it or works better at releiving it than Relpax, which isn't prescribed enough of for me.

kcass

2/ 9/10 9:33pm

So, so far I've been headache free for 2 days (knock on wood) as long as I keep the daytime naps in my daily routine (which the headache hospital told me not to do).  Then although my PCP said if that is what it takes to get by every day then do it! The magnesium level  is at 192mg 3 times a day and seems to be working great. My doctor is on board with this as a trial run but if it doesn't work then we'll switch from mag chloride to mag oxide and build up the levels from 250mg 2X a day to whatever it takes. So keep your fingers crossed we're in for one wild ride for the next week or so.