Cluster Headaches – Do You Recognize the Symptoms?

Cluster migraines are often confused with regular migraine headaches, but these are two different maladies entirely. Make no mistake; migraines are terribly painful, and people who have them have a difficult cross to bear. But cluster migraines are, believe it or not, even worse. Only those who have actually experienced the horror of them actually know what it’s like. In this article, I’ll give an overview of cluster migraine symptoms, for those who are living with them but don’t know what they’re called.

Cluster Headache Symptoms: The Major Symptoms

Cluster headache symptoms often begin just after going to sleep. Doctors don’t know why this is, exactly, but it’s a common pattern. It’s not universal, though; they can come on at any time of day or night. Also, the pain is located on only one side of your head or face, which is where many people mistakenly think the name cluster headaches come from, because the pain isn’t spread out evenly, but instead clusters in a particular area. (The name actually refers to the fact that cluster headaches occur in clusters of time, with attacks happening over a period of weeks or months, then stopping.) In the vast sufferers, the pain is on the same side of the face in during nearly every headache, while a small minority of people report that the attacks alternate between both sides. That is, one attack will be on the left side of the face, and the next one will be on the right side, etc. But in all cases, the pain stays only on one side during a particular cluster period.

You’ll immediately recognize the onset of a cluster migraine because its first symptom is a terrible pain in one eye. Victim after victim report the same thing – a horrible sensation that feels as if they’re being stabbed in the eye with a knife or a pair of scissors. The pain, which is almost unbearable, will be at its worst about 10 minutes after the headache begins. This is accompanied by the other major symptom, which is the sensation of tiny little electrical shocks, which only worsen the pain during the cluster period. The cluster period usually lasts between 30 minutes to an hour and a half.

Cluster Headache Symptoms: The Minor Symptoms

Cluster headache symptoms fall into two categories, major and minor. The really big one is the stabbing sensation in one eye, or one side of the face. If you’ve ever had this happen to you, and it lasted for around an hour or so, you probably had a cluster headache. But there are a great many minor symptoms that accompany cluster headaches.

The first minor cluster migraine symptoms you might notice are problems with your eye on the affected side of your face, in addition to the terrible pain. Cluster headaches are poorly understood by medical experts even today, so doctors really can’t say what causes this reaction, but the affected eyelid may have a noticeable droop during the duration of the headache. In addition, the eye itself may shed tears. These aren’t really tears of pain, because both eyes would tear up in that case. And the droopiness and tearing may occur individually, or together. But they’ll always happen to the eye on the same side of the face as the headache.

Nasal problems are also classic cluster headache symptoms. It’s common to experience either a runny nose or a stopped up nose, and, just as with the eye, it only happens in the nostril on the affected side of the face. Other symptoms include a pronounced restlessness, or anxiety, which is certainly understandable given the intense pain. Finally, profuse sweating and a flushed face are common cluster headache symptoms. One thing to note, although it’s not really a symptom, but more of an indicator, is that cluster headaches usually occur in January or July. The reason for this is not known, and is part of the medical mystery of cluster headaches.

If you’ve been suffering from these symptoms, you’ve probably been having cluster migraines but didn’t know it. It’s important that you seek an effective treatment, because they rarely stop occurring on their own.

By: Leslie Bogaerts

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