Friday, January 08, 2010 Isabellyjelly asks

Q: Beside lack of sleep what could trigger migraines while sleeping ?

I have a history with migraines sleeping or not. I had migranes pretty near everyday for around three years until I got pregnant with my daughter when I was 21 years old.

I got the migranes on average 3 times per day and in the end one of those times would be during my sleep. I figure in that time span I took about 9000 pills ( tylenol, advil, ib profen and a sample of a prescribed instant desolve ones ). My doctor would not prescribe me those pills as my migranes were to frequent she said.

I am now 27 years old and I have started getting the migranes again on an almost everyday basis except now it seems to be different than before. I have only actually had a few of them during my hours of being awake, I usually get them during sleep and it is as frequent as three times in 8 hours of sleep, the migranes are way more intense and literally seem to make it impossible to do anything until they are gone where before I was still able to do things while I had one.

With these ones now even the slightest movement of my body even just to close or open my eyes give unbarable intense pain. It feels like the right side of my head is going to explode which seems to be the only side I am getting them on this time.

I know I would like to go see a specialist as I think where my doctor will not prescribe anything and has not tried to do any kind of testing then I need someone else but at the same time I don't want to rely on taking prescription drugs or non prescription drugs for that matter on a daily basis. Maybe there are some possible natural remedies for this as well as I am sure it hurts my body to be taking so many pills.

My boyfriend has got me using some type of seeds that there is research being done on and they do seem to make the pain go away but it is taking at least 30 minutes to work and it is a horrible 30 minutes. These migranes do take place whether or not I am sleeping well at night which I know that the migranes are also causing me a lot of lost sleep. Please Help !

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Answers (1)

Teri Robert, Health Guide

1/10/10 10:57am

Isabellyjelly,

-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-•*Welcome to MyMigraineConnection!*•-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-

As I read your questions, the first thing that hit mwas your having taken 9,000 tablets. Even assuming you're talking about the entire nine months of your pregnancy, that's in excess of 30 tablets a day. So, here's something that EVERY Migraineur needs to know.

Taking Migraine abortive meds such as the triptans or ergotamines or any kind of pain medication -- prescription or over-the-counter -- more than two or three days a week can make matters worse by causing medication overuse headache (MOH), aka rebound. See Medication Overuse Headache - When the Remedy Backfires for more information on this.

If your Migraines are starting while you sleep, one thing I'd suggestis trying to identify the trigger or triggers for them. When working to identify triggers one of the best tools is a good Migraine diary. You can read more about this and download a free diary workbook in our article Your Migraine and Headache Diary. Some of us have food triggers, some of us don't. The best way to determine if you do is to do an elimination diet for a while. For more information and a workbook on this, see Managing Migraine - Migraine Trigger Foods. Something to keep in mind is that you don't always get the Migraine immediately followinng exposure to triggers. For example, you can get a Migraine from a food, if it's a trigger for you, up to 48 hours after you eat it.

Another issue is that having three Migraines in an eight-hour period would be very rare. You also need your doctor to help you determine if you're really having three separate Migraines or if it's one Migraine where the symptoms lessen, then increase again.

Bottom line, I'm sorry to say, is that you really need to see your doctor about this. We need to see our doctor whenever our Migraine patterns change to be sure that there's nothing else going on.

Please kep me posted, and let me know iif there's anything we can do to help?

Welcome again,

Teri

Isabellyjelly

1/11/10 10:28am

Thank you for the info. I did not take the pills while pregant and the 9000 would have been over the course of three years just so you know but my doctor seem to not bee too worried about the amount of migranes I had per day except that she was not willing to prescribe anything. Either way I will check out those links and see what I can do to find a trigger. The only reason I never thought it could be food is because I always have them everyday and did not think there should be that many food triggers as I eat differnet things on diffent days. Thank You

Teri Robert, Health Guide

1/11/10 10:37am

You're very welcome, and thanks for the info on the meds you were taking.

As you read, please let me know if I can give you any other information or support.

Please keep me posted? I'd love to keep up with how you're doing.

Teri

Isabellyjelly

2/16/10 7:09am

SO I went to my doctor about 2 weeks ago now actually two weeks ago to this day of the week. My doctor prescribed me Elavil 25 mg for preventative and Maxalt 5 mg wafers for the actual migraine when it hits. I was becoming really depressed when I got the meds from the doctor but now and much more depressed after being on this Elavil. I am having many issues where everything gets to me and I am crying on a daily basis which I did not before and I can't even go see my doctor in the next two weeks as she is off for the next two weeks when I have a day off of work and can go there. I need at least three weeks to bokk vacation to take time off for that if I go a day other than my day and have no personal time that I can use as I had taken it all due to the issue in the first place and if I miss anymore time than I will be on some kind of discipline for that and don't want that. My boyfriend is taking the depression personally and is distancing himself from me and gets mad about the side effects the pills have on me when I sleep as he can't sleep because I am moving around too much. He told me to my face that I will have to deal with this alone and he is not willing to support me as I really need him to do. I love him very much and do not want to loose him over a medical condition that I am suffering from which i did not choose to have. So I guess that's where things are at this point. Going to do as much research as I can to see what I can do to try and relieve the dpression on my own and hopefully feel like that real me again. The worst is that I can't even smile these last two weeks and it scraes me.

Q: Beside lack of sleep what could trigger migraines while sleeping ?

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