Has anyone had any success with sleep aids? Do sleepaids add to secondary headaches like pain medication?  My husband needs some rest we think he may be nearing the end of this episode, but of course the anxiety of the next visit by the beast is causing him to not sleep. The last few nights he has only been experiencing shadow headaches.

Melatonin. Many here use it.

Melatonin BUT, from an English study, in a dose of
1/2-3/4mg. Higher and lower doses, for sleep, didn't work as well.

And those low dosages mentioned by Bob don't seem to do diddly squat for a clusterhead in the midst of a cycle.

I rarely get real insomnia, but when I do, one 3 mg melatonin will hardly do anything to get me to sleep and more than one seems to trigger my clusters.  Occasionally I will take 15 mg of Temazapam and it works well without triggering my clusters.

Trying to sleep when there is physical pain and/or anxiety operating will require a more potent med than melatonin. Even with Rx meds, the results are often mixed.

The dose I mentioned assumes a "normal" insomnia, i.e., not complicated by anger, etc.

If your husband is willing to get into a self-training program, working  to get his anxiety under control, has broad based benefits for the whole Cluster experience as well as for any of life's normal stresssors.

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I take amitriptyline, 200-300 mg, every night.  I have seen a great deal of bad publicity on a few CH sites, so I didn't think I would ever bring it up.  I have been taking it ever since my first diagnosis of TMJ.  At the time the Dr. thought the TMJ was from grinding my teeth.  I have suffered with CH for 27 years, and the ONLY times I have had middle of the night hits have been when I did not take my amitriptyline.  I think I take such a high dose (and I am a small female), that I sleep through them.  I know. Doesn't sound right.  That's why I never wanted to bring it up.  I wish someone else would try it so I can give myself some credibility!

Clusterfeck, I've actually had a similar experience to yours.  I was recently prescribed nortriptyline, which is a cousin to amitriptyline.  While I found that it did nothing to stop the nighttime hits, it definitely makes me drowsy and helps with sleep.  Certainly it works better for me than melatonin.

I use 5mg of Triazolam and it usually works well.

Tips for insomniacs--cool your head to fall asleep

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I have never found one thing that works. It has always taken a mixture of stuff... at very high doses, and at the risk of giving potentially fatal advise, I will leave it at that. After 37 years of experimenting, I have tried most everything in numerous combinations, and still don't have a solid answer for sleep.

Addendum: I usually take 25mg of benadryl along with the melatonin.