Posted by Giorgio Porzio on November 03, 1998 at 09:11:45:
In Reply to: Why At Night????????? posted by Linda on November 02, 1998 at 15:17:25:
Hi Linda,
Yes, I have them more often at night than during the day.
My vision is not affected and I think Doc is right, you should
see an ophtalmologist if the aura is persisting after the onset
of the crisis.
As to why at night...? I have a theory, but then
again, who doesn't?
I believe that at the root of CH there is a problem with the
hypothalamus. Somewhere, our biological clocks go
haywire. This in turn leads to organs mis-aligning
their "clocks". Say, for instance, the gallbladder
starts producing bilis at the wrong moment. This, in
turn upsets other thigs, etc. etc.
The reason why I believe that circadian rhythms are
at the root are these:
1) CH have the uncanny habit of starting (especially at the
onset of a period of clusters) always at the same time, take
or give a few minutes. So, THEY are punctual and
upset all the rest (or maybe it's the other way
around).
2) I have tried using melatonin to re-sync the sleep
cycle, much as I would do if I were jet-lagged, for
instance. This has made things only worse. In my case
at least, melatonin seems to induce a crisis.
3) Very often, a couple of hours or so before a crisis,
I feel extremely drowsy. This is a tell-tale sign of
an impending headache and quite often I manage to
forestall the crisis by taking 1mg of ergotamine
tartrate.
Finally, headaches at night are worse only because
they actually wake us up when they are already going
full blast. During the day you can sometimes "feel"
the headache coming and try to stop it. No such luck
at night. So it's harder to get rid of it.
Well, sorry for the long winded message. I'm new
to the board and maybe all of this has been discussed
by all of you many times before. In any case, I hope
I can contribute with a few insights.
I hope you have a break.
Giorgio