Aa
Severe HA with laying down
Did anyone ever figure out what caused your headaches?
Im 26 years old, with NO history of headaches- maybe one a year!
two days ago I woke up (from a normal good nights sleeps) with a SEVERE pounding HA, I thought I was going to have projectile vomiting- I instantly stood up (instinctually) and it was gone. But when I went to lay back down it came right back. During the day it completly dissapeared. The very next morning I had the same thing, but then the headache and nausea remained dull all day and didnt dissapear. I thought maybe my neck had spasms or something and I massaged it all day, drank water blah blah ... that night I ended up sleeping sitting up in a chair because I was so afraid of that morning pain... I woke up with a really bad HA but not AS bad as that last two nights. But my sleep sucked because I was sitting...
During the day (today, the third day of this stuff) it is dull but with moments of adrenalin like I saw a spider and it brought on the HA severely , but went away in a couple of minutes.
I have no vision issues or vertigo...
I also have no health insurance so Im trying to avoid going to a doc
my blood pressure is 110/60
any thoughts?
This discussion is related to Headache only when lying down.
Im 26 years old, with NO history of headaches- maybe one a year!
two days ago I woke up (from a normal good nights sleeps) with a SEVERE pounding HA, I thought I was going to have projectile vomiting- I instantly stood up (instinctually) and it was gone. But when I went to lay back down it came right back. During the day it completly dissapeared. The very next morning I had the same thing, but then the headache and nausea remained dull all day and didnt dissapear. I thought maybe my neck had spasms or something and I massaged it all day, drank water blah blah ... that night I ended up sleeping sitting up in a chair because I was so afraid of that morning pain... I woke up with a really bad HA but not AS bad as that last two nights. But my sleep sucked because I was sitting...
During the day (today, the third day of this stuff) it is dull but with moments of adrenalin like I saw a spider and it brought on the HA severely , but went away in a couple of minutes.
I have no vision issues or vertigo...
I also have no health insurance so Im trying to avoid going to a doc
my blood pressure is 110/60
any thoughts?
This discussion is related to Headache only when lying down.
Hi my name is Ina and i am from SA.
I have suffered from migraines since 18 years of age and now 59 years old. in 2000 i had an operation done to rechannel new arteries just below the skull to help with blood flow etc. Nevertheless it did not work. it was televised in SA and worked for many other patients but not me. Thereafter my neurologist gave me imigran injections to carry on me as he maintained he has never seen such terrible migraines.(he is a migraine sufferer himself) I can honestly say i have tried all kinds of meds and treatments but no improvement.
Now it is totally out of control and i have it daily BUT the pattern has changed. When i inject and it goes away completely it always returns when i go to sleep. I wake up at night only from these incredible migraines I went to my neurologist last week and he suggested a brain scan to see why the change.
Let me just inform you that 2 months ago i started acupuncture 2X a week and this past week went there when i had a full blown attack Afterwards it eased off so much and by the time we got home it was completely gone.
I will keep you up to date once i get my results of the MRI - had it done many years ago so we will have to wait and see what happens on Wednesday.
My thoughts and best wishes with everybody suffering from this debilitating disease
warm regards
Metanoiya
I have suffered from migraines since 18 years of age and now 59 years old. in 2000 i had an operation done to rechannel new arteries just below the skull to help with blood flow etc. Nevertheless it did not work. it was televised in SA and worked for many other patients but not me. Thereafter my neurologist gave me imigran injections to carry on me as he maintained he has never seen such terrible migraines.(he is a migraine sufferer himself) I can honestly say i have tried all kinds of meds and treatments but no improvement.
Now it is totally out of control and i have it daily BUT the pattern has changed. When i inject and it goes away completely it always returns when i go to sleep. I wake up at night only from these incredible migraines I went to my neurologist last week and he suggested a brain scan to see why the change.
Let me just inform you that 2 months ago i started acupuncture 2X a week and this past week went there when i had a full blown attack Afterwards it eased off so much and by the time we got home it was completely gone.
I will keep you up to date once i get my results of the MRI - had it done many years ago so we will have to wait and see what happens on Wednesday.
My thoughts and best wishes with everybody suffering from this debilitating disease
warm regards
Metanoiya
I'm sorry to hear you've been suffering, and I empathize very much as I came to this website today searching for help with a very similar problem. I'm interested to see many people here have headaches when lying down. Mine differs from yours in that I've had the problem for a few years, but it lately has gotten worse and also has gone from going away when I sit up to being more like your second day, when yours continued. But your type of headaches seems more like mine than some others I've seen posted here. No question that we're all suffering in one way or other!
It's interesting that many folks here seem to report that their doctors say it's unusual to hear of headaches caused by lying down. I've asked docs in the past and none have been able to give a definitive answer, though I've had some theories suggested. I'd like to know if anyone on these forums has ever received a clear diagnosis.
I hope this page draws others, including health experts, to give some advice particular to this problem. My situation follows.
I've had headaches since my teens. The headaches were tentatively diagnosed as migraines in the mid-90's, and I had many tests (including an MRI) in the early 2000s which basically determined that the cause was not a tumor nor any other visible entity, but most likely stress and thus, muscle-related. I had whiplash in the 90's and my neck has bothered me since; x-ray confirmed I have arthritis there and in my back, both a source of plain old neck and back pain and tight muscles). I take Zomig or Imitrex, and it works to take all the headaches away (I know I'm luckier than most in that it works, even for my lying-down headaches).
I for years slept with no pillow or with only a very small foam cushion just under my neck as regular pillows made my neck hurt. (I love nice big pillows, so that was a source of sadness for me to give them up! One of the lesser problems caused. : ) ) I also noticed that sitting in a computer chair that pushed my neck forward would start the headache off. I even bought a new chair to improve that, which it did. If I took the meds right away, it might go away; if I didn't, by the morning I had a full-blown migraine(-like) headache, nausea and all. Sometimes (rarely) I get the visual disturbances with the headaches. I also know that some foods will give me a migraine, but almost always a milder kind that I can easily head off.
When my "lying-down" headaches began (I'll shorten this to LDH) around 3 years ago, the neck pillow helped, or upon sitting up it would go away entirely. Sometimes it's gone away for a couple of months at a time, or it would come and go a couple of days here and there. Then sometimes it would be there for a few weeks, then revert back to once in a while.
Well, lately it's not only every day, but the really big difference from the 3-year pattern is that it does not go away upon standing; and it turns into a bad one if I don't immediately take the prescription meds. Very occasionally, just taking 3 ibuprofen (with food) or acetominophen will help. But it's rare that those help, and if it doesn't work within 1/2 hour, I must quickly take the prescrip's or the H will worsen. Ice on my head helps, too.
It is getting scary, not only because of the daily pain and meds, but because it is causing me to not be able to get a night's sleep. It also, as you Challah and others here have said, makes me afraid to go to sleep in fear of the LDH that now seems sure to come.
I believe that in my case the most likely explanations are muscle tension, but I also wonder about the neck arthritis and whether there is some sort of pressure on a nerve that is now getting worse due to perhaps a vertebra having shifted.
I am considering going to a chiropractor and/or an acupuncturist as I've already gone through a lot of medical tests and specialists. I guess I just wanted to post this to see if anyone else has gotten any other answers or help anywhere. I plan to also pay the $5 here to post this to a doc to answer; even though it does seem it is very difficult for them without examining the patient. But every person's symptoms being just a bit different perhaps may ring a bell somehow for the doc. $5 isn't much to just try. If I learn something, I'll try to come back and report it.
It's interesting that many folks here seem to report that their doctors say it's unusual to hear of headaches caused by lying down. I've asked docs in the past and none have been able to give a definitive answer, though I've had some theories suggested. I'd like to know if anyone on these forums has ever received a clear diagnosis.
I hope this page draws others, including health experts, to give some advice particular to this problem. My situation follows.
I've had headaches since my teens. The headaches were tentatively diagnosed as migraines in the mid-90's, and I had many tests (including an MRI) in the early 2000s which basically determined that the cause was not a tumor nor any other visible entity, but most likely stress and thus, muscle-related. I had whiplash in the 90's and my neck has bothered me since; x-ray confirmed I have arthritis there and in my back, both a source of plain old neck and back pain and tight muscles). I take Zomig or Imitrex, and it works to take all the headaches away (I know I'm luckier than most in that it works, even for my lying-down headaches).
I for years slept with no pillow or with only a very small foam cushion just under my neck as regular pillows made my neck hurt. (I love nice big pillows, so that was a source of sadness for me to give them up! One of the lesser problems caused. : ) ) I also noticed that sitting in a computer chair that pushed my neck forward would start the headache off. I even bought a new chair to improve that, which it did. If I took the meds right away, it might go away; if I didn't, by the morning I had a full-blown migraine(-like) headache, nausea and all. Sometimes (rarely) I get the visual disturbances with the headaches. I also know that some foods will give me a migraine, but almost always a milder kind that I can easily head off.
When my "lying-down" headaches began (I'll shorten this to LDH) around 3 years ago, the neck pillow helped, or upon sitting up it would go away entirely. Sometimes it's gone away for a couple of months at a time, or it would come and go a couple of days here and there. Then sometimes it would be there for a few weeks, then revert back to once in a while.
Well, lately it's not only every day, but the really big difference from the 3-year pattern is that it does not go away upon standing; and it turns into a bad one if I don't immediately take the prescription meds. Very occasionally, just taking 3 ibuprofen (with food) or acetominophen will help. But it's rare that those help, and if it doesn't work within 1/2 hour, I must quickly take the prescrip's or the H will worsen. Ice on my head helps, too.
It is getting scary, not only because of the daily pain and meds, but because it is causing me to not be able to get a night's sleep. It also, as you Challah and others here have said, makes me afraid to go to sleep in fear of the LDH that now seems sure to come.
I believe that in my case the most likely explanations are muscle tension, but I also wonder about the neck arthritis and whether there is some sort of pressure on a nerve that is now getting worse due to perhaps a vertebra having shifted.
I am considering going to a chiropractor and/or an acupuncturist as I've already gone through a lot of medical tests and specialists. I guess I just wanted to post this to see if anyone else has gotten any other answers or help anywhere. I plan to also pay the $5 here to post this to a doc to answer; even though it does seem it is very difficult for them without examining the patient. But every person's symptoms being just a bit different perhaps may ring a bell somehow for the doc. $5 isn't much to just try. If I learn something, I'll try to come back and report it.
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Neurology Community
Top Neurology Answerers
Allentown, PA
ON
Queensland, Australia
Queen Creek, AZ
Find out how beta-blocker eye drops show promising results for acute migraine relief.
In this special Missouri Medicine report, doctors examine advances in diagnosis and treatment of this devastating and costly neurodegenerative disease.
Here are 12 simple – and fun! – ways to boost your brainpower.
Discover some of the causes of dizziness and how to treat it.
Discover the common causes of headaches and how to treat headache pain.
Two of the largest studies on Alzheimer’s have yielded new clues about the disease
