My Mother in law was diagnosed with shingles about 3 weeks ago. I have never witnessed someone in so much pain before. Her Dr said hers is one of the worst cases he had ever seen. Her attacks as I will call them were occurring at intervals of 4 to 9 hours apart. She has discovered that she can stop them if she acts within the first couple of seconds of an attack. What she does the moment she feels an attack beginning is use her hands and apply as much pressure as possible to the location where she feels the attack starting. As I said she was having attacks every 4 to 9 hours, it has now been 48 hours with only 1 attack that began as she was sleeping. I hope this can help someone.