Migraine Warning Signs, Symptoms, and After-Effects

Migraine sufferers can often sense that an attack is coming. They can also suffer migraine hangovers or after-effects.

What Are the Warning Signs of a Migraine Attack?

Warnings of an attack, sometimes called premonitions or precursors, can happen several hours (or even days) before the pain starts. Signals that migraine is coming can include:

• Intense energy
• Fatigue
• Food cravings
• Thirst
• Mood changes
• Aura (light flashes, blind spots, zigzag lines, shimmering lights, or numbness and tingling in the arm and face)

What Symptoms Are Typical of a Migraine?

Everyone knows a bad headache when they feel one, but migraine headaches have some specific characteristics. Migraine pain may be felt behind the eye or in the back of head and neck. Migraine symptoms usually include:

• Throbbing, pounding, or pulsating pain
• Pain that's worse on one side of head.
• A dull ache that gets worse within minutes to hours.
• Pain that lasts up to 48 hours.

Other symptoms that may occur with the headache include:

• Chills
• Increased urination
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Numbness, tingling, or weakness
• Difficulty concentrating or finding words
• Sensitivity to light or sound
• Perspiration

What Are Migraine After-Effects?

After the migraine has gone away, patients often feel what is sometimes called a migraine "hangover." Symptoms can include:

• Feeling mentally dull, not thinking clearly
• Increased fatigue
• Neck pain