Posted by George O. Jacox on September 24, 1998 at 15:24:50:
Something I've never seen discussed, but I'm curious about: Whether anyone else has bizarre psychogical effects that occur during a CH.
I should explain that for me, a typical headache wakes me from REM sleep. During the first half hour, I pace and mutter in typical fashion, then sit down in some dark place for the duration, which is usually a couple of hours. During the final couple of hours, I seem to enter a "trance" state, that usually ends with me falling asleep while sitting up. The mental effects seem to happen while I'm in this "trance" state.
1. A sense of timelessness: I lose all sense of the passage of time--moments are like hours, and hours like minutes. Very strange sensation.
2. Recurring thoughts or images: A dream I wake from may play over and over in my head, or an event from the previous day may replay itself in memory again and again. This again is a very odd feeling, and seems almost unstoppable.
3. Presque vu: A powerful sensation that "something" is about to happen, but it never does. I'm a very reality-based person, and not at all superstitious, but this sensation is very intense and almost paranormal. It's almost as if I'm going to see a ghost, but I never do.
Could this stuff be related to seritonin release during a headache? After all--seritonin balance alters during dreaming sleep, and it (if I remember correctly) works on some of the same receptor sites as hallucinogenic drugs.
Whatever the mechanism, these mental effects seem to be very consistent--they happen every time I have a headache.