Migraine aura symptoms experienced whilst dreaming

 Hemianopia experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming
 Elementary geometric hallucinations experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming
 Somatosensory symptoms experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming
 Tinnitus experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming
 Vertigo experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming
 Out-of-body experiences occurring as migraine aura whilst dreaming
 Idea of a presence experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming
 Déjà vu sensations experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming

Dreams and memories

They say people can't remember anything from before they were 3 years old. In my case, the beginning of my definate memories was closer to 4, starting in the place we stayed after the doctors apparently did their thing to me. I was always unable to remember more, though sometimes I'd have a mental image with no time sequencing attached to it. And sometimes I've dreamed.

Not just any dreams, only a very few that I had while sleeping during one of my migraine headaches. I haven't always been troubled with migraines, for me they link to my estrogen level and are almost a recent thing. The only other time when I was subject to them was between 9 and 13, which makes me wonder if I had a high estrogen level then too.

The dreams themselves had been crystal clear, as though I were seeing things from my waking eyes, and my being fairly lucid. I could not act, these only seemed to be replaying events. Nothing unrealistic or dream like, being very mundane except for two things. The first was that I could not hear, and the second that everyone else seemed to be giants.

I'm somewhat of a sceptic and I usually attach the most likely sounding explanation to things, though lately those rationalizations have often been wrong. For these dreams, I said to myself that it must be a sort of strange hallucination brought on by the migraines. And the experiences were good to have, because they always cancelled the migraine instead of my having to suffer for 3 days.

But then last weekend I went to my grandfather's funeral, which was a sad occasion despite some very friendly distant relatives who I never usually got a chance to see. Though some of them were wondering where they got the extra granddaughter from, most of them were uncommonly accepting and didn't even need to ask, almost as if they'd known something for a long time.

Anyways, we took a sidetrip to the house I'd lived in as an infant. My parents moved out shortly before I was 2 years old, and never went back or visited the place. And ... that was exactly the place in two of my hyper- realistic migraine dreams. Seeming almost a complete match of details, except that the neighboring houses appeared to be slightly modernized, and the street had been widened to handle more traffic.

So now I wonder about the distinction between memories and dreams, and the meaning of why my subconcious apparently made such an amazing effort of bringing back pieces of my earliest past. How was this possible in the first place? when the developmental psychologists say 3 years old is the beginning of memory. Now I have more questions than I started with.

Sorry for rambling, good day to you all.

(Priestess, Bodies like ours - Intersex Information and Peer Support, March 26, 2006)

Hemianopia experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming

"Most of my migraines wake me up in the middle of the night. So there I'll be, dreaming along, and suddenly HALF of the vision of my dream will go black, or be replaced by fireworks, or zigzig/newsprint patterns. It always wakes me up immediately... Amazing feats the human brain can perform (or is it playing tricks!)"

(Reader77, BrainTalk Communities, Subject: What's "Weird" About YOUR H/A's?, March 29, 2004)

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

Elementary geometric hallucinations experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming

"Many times the person gets premonitory symptoms of migraines in his or her dreams. One person [Féré, 1903] had dreams of storms, volcanic eruptions and fires before his attacks."

(Cited from Gary Lockhart: Migraine Headaches; in: Natural Earth: The English Standard Reference on Herbal Healing - Volume 1: The Herbal Center of Healing, November 6, 2003; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

MIGRAINE AND DREAMS

By Duncan Barford

Recently I woke from a dream at 2.30 a.m., and discovered I was in the midst of a migraine attack.

I had a headache, felt slightly nauseous, and my vision was distorted in the usual way - a scintillating negative scotoma, positioned to the left of my visual field, slightly "reddish" in appearance.

These "scotomas" are quite difficult to describe to people who have not experienced them. They are a kind of irregular-shaped section of one's field of vision, within which nothing can be "seen" or "made sense of". It is not really the same as having something blacked-out or obscured from view, it is simply the case that *seeing is not possible* within that patch of the visual field. As I understand it, scotomas are a neurological phenomenon - they result from some transient dysfunction in the brain rather than the visual apparatus...

Anyway - what I found interesting about this experience was that although my brain was obviously in the throes of some minor neurological trauma, the *quality* of my dreams did not appear to be affected, although their content seemed to have been influenced.

It seemed that I had woken from an unusually intense dream of sexual intercourse - it felt as if this had woken me up, rather than the headache. It occurred to me that this was perhaps my body's way of attempting to deal with the physical tension which accompanied the migraine...

After this I went back to sleep and dreamt that I had a migraine, and was being looked after by my mother... (**Silence, you cursed Freudians!**) The scotoma I had experienced earlier featured in this dream, but it seemed rather unconvincing and silly: I *dreamt* of the scotoma as a kind of object, apprently overlaying part of my "visual" field - and, as I mentioned, this is *not* what a scotoma is... In the dream my "visual" sense was entirely unimpaired...

I think that this experience adds some weight to my ongoing contention that dreaming has nothing to do with "seeing" or "perception"... That one does not "see" anything - in any sense - in a dream, but merely *imagines* that one does so...

How else can I explain the fact that although my visual cortex was evidently in some kind of neurological uproar whilst I slept, the quality of my dreams remained unimpaired?

(Duncan Barford, Newsgroups: alt.dreams, July 13, 1996)

"I dream often that I have the 'flashing lights' aura and when I wake up I have a mother and father of a migraine so now if I dream that I have the flashing lights, I know that I am actually starting with a migraine. The only probem with this is that if I don't take medication during the aura, the pain just won't go away."

(Anne, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Dreaming, January 8, 1998)

"After 20 or so years of these migraines I thought I had experienced the gamut of migraine related garbage. Last nite I fell fast asleep, my usual escape from migraine pain etc. I dreamt I was at someone's house and felt an occular migraine coming on and was in a panic as to I had to get home because I wouldn't be able to drive etc. I suddently awoke and here I was in the middle of a real occular migraine - complete with the wild squiwlly zig-zags and disjointed visual problems - followed by the level 6 or so headache. I dont know if I was more mad because I had the headache or mortified the headache had now entered my 'safe' sleep state!! Can't even blame it on any medications as I am currently only using imitrex and haven't had an injection since last week. Gosh, is there truly no safe haven from these monsters! Just thought I'd share this experience."

(Lesley Saglibene, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: oh no,migraines in my dream,tell me it isn't so!, March 30, 1999)

"Most of my migs were ones I woke up with - and all of those were preceded by an 'aura' dream - of spinning, falling, or flashing strobe lights, then I would wake with a 7+ at the least."

(Jane, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, March 30, Subject: oh no,migraines in my dream,tell me it isn't so!, 1999)

"Okay, now we are talking 'weird.' I have always, as long as i have been conscious, and many years before i began to get migraines, had their really strange eye-effects when 'driving through an area that has trees where the sunlight flickers as you pass them by,' e.g. the area near San Juan Bautista, California where there is a long row of eucalyptus trees beside the highway. The effect is that i can close my eyes and see a bizarre, shifting 'quilt' made up of red-orange and black 'quilt blocks' in about a dozen different patterns, mostly quares and triangles, arranged higgledy-piggledy, as ifan 'op artist' had designed the quilt -- and *very* similar to an all-over field comprised of the red-orange and black fortification patterns i dea during migraine auras. I also have dreamed of these patterns (e.g. someone hands me a red-orange and black quilt in a dream) and i can produce the patterns at will by wiggling my open fingers across my visual field in bright sunlight with my eyes closed. I have asked most of my friends if they see these patterns and they say no. I have been convinced for years that the patterns somehow relate to migraine, but i am not clear how. Does anyone here know what i am talking about?"

(Catherine Yronwode, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Long List of Food Triggers/Migraine, April 20, 1999)

"Concerning my migraine whilst sleeping - I think that the migraines suddenly appear whilst dreaming and during the latter part of sleep. This has only happened a few times and once they disappeared on waking which makes me wonder if I actually experienced the visual symptoms or did I dream them. Other times I have been vaguely aware of them in my sleep and woken up with the zigzags in the morning."

(Susan Macarthur, Email to Klaus Podoll, September 3, 2002)

"I used to experience ... many, many dots and squiggles and it was usually right in the center of my vision. It used to signal the onset of a migraine headache for me, which was 'extremely' painful and actually interfered with all of my senses and even with my thinking processes. I used to have these headaches about once or twice per month until around the age of 14, when my menstrual period started. ... I had a lucid dream a few years back in which I was flying around and I saw the same kind of aura, but in this dream it was my 'mate' who was behind that aura. It did not cause a migraine for me that time."

(Lisa Agnes Gardner, Newsgroups: alt.drugs, alt.support.schizophrenia, Subject: Re: Something odd happening to me, October 25, 2002)

Janice's ocular migraine dream

"My migraines were usually proceeded by auras. Always the aura would start with a small white dot where I simply couldn't see. This would grow into a jagged white stripe, and eventually expand into a colorful, silvery design composed of multiple nested arrowhead shapes, sort of like a Southwestern design. This would go away after 20-30 minutes and then the migraine proper would start. It felt like having a load of bricks on the top of my head. The auras were pretty enough in their own way, but of course made it almost impossible to see.
Interestingly, my very first migraine occurred shortly after I woke up from a dream in which a boat on the ocean was struck by lightning. The bolt of lightning looked just like the jagged white stripe that the white dot grew into when the aura started, and was in the same part of my visual field. I think the disturbances must have started while I was asleep and affected my dream, sort of like when you incorporate a doorbell into your dream as a telephone or whatever."

(Janice, Newsgroups: alt.dreams.lucid, Subject: Migraines, January 15, 2000)

"Although just as an interesting aside, the very first time I had a migraine, its preliminary 'aura' seems to have started during a lucid WILD type of thing. I was viewing a scene of a boat sailing in a stormy sea, with jagged white lightning streaking down around it. When I got up, before long I noticed a tiny white hole in my field of vision, which grew into a jagged white line in the same spot as the lightning had been. This grew into a super cool but very disruptive band of silvery overlapping triangles, something like you might see in a Plains Indian blanket design. After that came the mother and father of a headache."

(Janice, Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body, Subject: Lucid to OBE problem, March 17, 2001)

"Since I thought my retina had torn when I saw that jagged line, yeah, you could say that. I called my eye doctor's office right away, and they gave me the number for an opthalmologist. He said it sounded like a migraine coming on to him, and to wait half an hour or so to see if that's what would happen, and sure enough ... Luckily I have only had maybe half a dozen migraines, usually with the flowing silvery triangle things that at least make the ordeal a little entertaining. But you have to get flat pretty quickly because you can't walk around very well with a large portion of your visual field blocked off. You see the 'aura' whether your eyes are open or closed, since it's all happening in your brain, not your eyes, so it's a bit reminiscent of the 'seeing through closed eyelids' effect of OBEs."

(Janice, Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body, Subject: Lucid to OBE problem, March 17, 2001)

"My very first migraine started while I was dreaming, lucidly I think. I saw a small sailboat on the ocean being struck by lightning. Shortly after I got up, I saw a small white spot that gradually grew into a white lightning bolt shape, just like I'd seen in the dream, then became the silver zigzag thing like you describe. So it's interesting how my brain incorporated this into a dream just like it sometimes works external sensory input into dream content."

(Janice, Newsgroups: alt.dreams.lucid, Subject: Dream time in real time, March 10, 2002)

"Nasty things, those migraines. Interestingly, my first one was immediately preceded by a lucid dream in which I saw a boat out on the ocean get his by a jagged streak of lightning. Not long after I got up, a white blind spot appeared then rapidly expanded into a jagged white line just like the one in the dream, and in the same part of the visual field. I thought I might have a retinal tear and immediately called my optometrist's office. The secretary referred me to an ophthalmologist, who said it sounded like a migraine aura to him, and that if he was right, within twenty minutes or so I should have a horrible headache. He had nailed it.
When the jagged white line expands into a shimmery silver band of interlocking arrows, the effect is quite beautiful in its own way, although since it makes vision very difficult and is followed by the mother and father of a headache which can last for a couple of days, I'm quite happy not to see it anymore ..."

(Janice, Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body, Subject: Hallucinations, March 27, 2002)

"I suffer from optical migraines (seems off topic, but this comes into play later), to explain... In an optical migraine, the headache is preceded by a strange optical illusion. This is your brain misfiring and misinterpreting the information coming from your optic nerve. You see this misinterpretation as a line of fizzy, sparkly, grey/silvery line that slowly spirals out from your blind spot. It grows larger and expands toward the edge of your field of vision with time, and is there regardless of whether your lids are closed. In about half an hour it is gone. WIthen ten minutes you are hit with the worst headache you could imagine. For the next day your brain feels as though someone cracked your skull and inserted a stand-up blender on high. Now to the point:
I was having a dream the other night, I forget the content of it. But during my dream, an optical migraine initiated. I thought it was strange that i was dreaming of seeing the optical 'wavies' in front of my vision. Shortly thereafter I woke up and realized that I was having the migraine in real life.. .which sucked, cause the next day I felt horrible. However, I came to a realization: during sleep, the brain isn't working much differently than it does while awake. Obviously it is still registering optical signals at full blast, or how could I have seen the miagraine? Also, the migraine seemed thinner than usual while I was asleep, and swelled to normal thickness once I'd fully woken (disorienting me, but still, I thought it was cool). Another thing: time in dreams. The brain is timeless in dreams. People say 'time moves faster' or 'time moves slower' during a dream.. no, time doesn't move at all. You're brain is processing thousands of images and sounds from your entire life (most recent ones with highest priority) at the speed of light (electrons). If a sense of time is achieved in a dream, it is more of an image of time. Try to remember a dream in which you felt time pass, rather than just KNEW it passed. I can't. Another thing: while i was dreaming, it seemed that hours had passed in the dream, but the miagraine had not advanced at all. This would mean that dreams are instantaneous. The dream that you remember in the morning is the sum of the images you remember during the night. ....these are just the crazy ramblings of a frequent dreamer, however... what are your thoughts?"

(Matt M., Newsgroups: alt.dreams.lucid, Subject: Dream time in real time, March 10, 2002)

In The Sky With His Mother

By aural autumn

This week has been pretty weird. I got really sick on Monday with Katie. After eating some great stirfry and driving to Carmike Cinemas I got a migraine half way into our movie, threw up twice and had to go out to my car to sleep. Katie drove us home in my car and then I took some pain medicine that knocked me out. Tuesday I slept for a few hours at work and then hung out with Katie again, barely awake and weak. Wednesday and Thursday were the same. I have had a coming and going migraine all week. I have been very tired and unfocused, disociated. I also have not been sleeping very well. I wake up every few hours and in the morning I feel unrested and worn out. I don't know if this is all a mental state or if my body is really ill with something.

This all bring me to last night, Thursday. I had a guest visit until 12:30am. After he left I got in bed and turned off the tv for immediate resting. I thought about Toby. Its not unusual for me to think about him before bed. Its the only time, I have learned, where I can listen to my thoughts and my soul without interruption or things persuading them in other directions. Sometimes I cry, but its short and ends abruptly. This night I was thinking about his mother. She died two days after 9/11 from an accidental overdose. Toby had told me many stories about her. I had seen pictures and home movies. I had always felt a strange connection to her. There was a calmness that came over me upon looking at her pictures. It was like her soul radiated out from them. Toby and I had talked about the many coincidences in our relationship and between the two of us. He mentioned that every sibling he had and their animals had all had names that began with 'T', so anyone he ended up with would most likely have the same. Its a small coincidence, but one of many. There was a slight de' javu that Toby expressed to me. Eitherway, one time I came over and there was a paper plate on the table. Toby had written "my mom would have chosen you" on it and when I asked him what it meant, he said that it meant exactly what I thought it meant. I kept the plate.

So, I was reflecting on the love and respect on Toby's face when he talked about her and the pain in his eyes when he finally told me about her death. I got sick to my stomach and ached all over for him, because I often feel like I have left him all alone. That I have contributed to that awesome loss and loneliness, all the sadness was brought out again by me and then I left him to dwell in it alone. I fell alseep with these thoughts in mind.

As I slept I had a beautiful dream. It started as a night sky filled with millions of glimmering stars. Then, the sky started to wave and sway. A face emerged from the darkness, Toby's mother. Her hair became the sky, with waving stars in it, curling on the edges of the universe. She had her hands held up to her mouth, so I could only see her eyes. I just stared into them, for an unmeasureable moment in time. I saw my life in them and every story Toby had told me of his. I felt an array of emotions, ranging from Ecstatic to despair. She slowly closed her eyes and a single tear dropped down from her lashes, one for each eye. When she reopened them they were changing colors; green to brown, swirling. She said "Forgive and forget. Live without regret." I couldn't see her lips moving. It was as if her eyes were speaking silently to me. Then, she moved her hands down away from her mouth and her lips puckered as she blew on her hands, like blowing a kiss to me. As she a blew a million little speckles of golden twinkling dust covered me. It was gorgeous and wondrous. It felt refreashing and rejuvinating. I closed my eyes to feel it and swim inside of it. She spoke again saying, "You cannot deny the truths of love." I opened my eyes to see her again, but she was gone and Toby was in front of me now. I only saw him for a split second, because my alarm went off to wake me for work.

I laid in bed for a few minutes contemplating what I was supposed to take from this dream, whether it was really a sign from her, or maybe I was trying to stiffle my swelling emotions before I tried to get up for the long day ahead of me. I sat up in bed, stretched and looked out across my room. There was a stack of papers and such that had fallen from my dresser onto the floor. I went over to pick them up and reorganize them, but when I got there I was shocked. It was the pile of papers I had put the paper plate in that Toby had written about his mom on. In the middle of all the papers it laid in plain view. I left for work without touching a thing.

I still don't know how to react. It wasn't just the dream, the scattered papers, or the fact that I slept amazingly sound last night. It was the fact that it felt so real. That It wasn't a landscape dream or one where I walked on the ground of my imagination. I was floating, without time, without space. It was as if I had crossed over into her existance. My dream with her wasn't a dream to me at all. Wherever I had gone was totally created and made up by her; her energy, her soul, her mind. I cannot describe the shifting in me. I can only hope Toby has encountered something similar, for I'd be foolish to suppose he would believe me."

(aural autumn, artist's webpage at deviantart.com, August 13, 2004)

"I've been off the aspartame for nearly a month now but I had another SS last night.
It was a weird experience.....
I went to bed ar about 11 p.m. after a non stressful day. Went to sleep and then at about 5 a.m. during dream sleep, I dreamt I was having an SS and was looking for a quiet place to sit out the experience. Then I woke up to find I was in the middle of an SS for real!!
This time a piece from the tip of the arc broke away and didn't follow the main bit outward toward my peripheral vision. It stayed near the middle. I was a bit worried I was going to be stuck with it but it faded about the same time the rest disappeared from view.
Klaus
If its of any interest to you the dream immediately prior was a disagreement with a family member after which I ran out the house and was searchimg for somewhere to 'hide'. As I was doing so I got the SS, then thought 'great! now I’m having an SS attack!' so was even more keen to find a secluded spot. I woke up before I succeeded."

(Jennyb, Edith Frost's Website, August 25, 2005)

"Visual Migraine Auras in Dreams?

I just had the weirdest thing happen. I was fully asleep and having a very vivid dream. And I clearly remember most of the dream. And at one point I got my regular migraine aura (the visual kind). And in my dream I became very aware of what it was, and that I was gonna have a migraine...

But then, I wake up, and the exact same aura is still there! So now I'm minutes away from a debilitating migraine, and just thought I'd like to share this weird experience with you guys.

Has anyone else ever had REAL migraine auras appear in their dreams? I know I've woken up in the middle of the night half way through a migraine before, but I never saw or felt any auras in my dreams before. This is so weird.

I tried something new for the very first time. I bought Magnesium supplements the other week. So when I woke up with this aura, I immediately popped 1000mg of the stuff.

And so far it seems like all the tightness and tension behind my eyes has gone away. And my migraine hasn't happened yet. I'm feeling hopeful!"

(superpaco, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual Migraine Auras in Dreams?, March 21, 2006)

"Yes, I get those exact same crescent shaped visual auras. In my dream it was as if the aura just overlayed on top of my dream. You know, how you can still see it even if you close your eyes? It was kinda like that, except I was aware of the aura in my dream and got really angry as usual. Then I woke up and the aura was still there. In the same spot, looked exactly the same.

Also, the magnesium I took did help quite a bit I think. My migraine seemed to go away completely, minus the mild soreness behind my eyes that occurred hours later. But even that was so minimal that I barely noticed.

I don't think I realized I was dreaming before I woke up. It was just one of those vivid dreams that you remember very clearly afterwards."

(superpaco, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual Migraine Auras in Dreams?, March 22, 2006)

"I always have my auras in my dreams, and then wake up with a migraine! It's so annoying...

It's just like an aura overlayed on to my dream... Like I'm watching my dream movie with an aura. And a lot of the time, in my dream I'll know I'm getting a migraine (in my dream reality) and start running around trying to fix it.

The time thing is screwed up too -- because of my dreams, it seems like my auras last a LOT longer than they actually do.

My auras present as crescents, which start out small in the center of my field of vision and slowly get larger and spread out to one of my temples. They open up as crescents and I'll get a migraine in the side of my head opposite the side that they disappeared to. I see all of this during my dreams.

I almost always wake up seeing the edge of the aura, about 30 minutes through it.

Also, I get auras mid-migraine that sometimes make it switch sides. If I'm trying to sleep of a migraine, I'll dream the auras then too."

(the pallasathene, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual Migraine Auras in Dreams?, March 21, 2006)

"I... actually think that's happened to me. I very very rarely wake up with migraines, but I do remember once or twice dreaming about that floating TV fuzz! Wow... never thought about it before. Stupid migraines."

(bubbledragon, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual Migraine Auras in Dreams?, March 21, 2006)

"It's like.... if you close your eyes and either squeeze them real tight or push on your eyelids, when you open them, there is a bit of a haze... I get what looks like a patch of slightly transparent TV fuzz that kind of floats about. Occasionally it's a jagged line of lightening, but usually the hazy patch. Give me a bit of time, and I'll maybe mock up something like it in photoshop."

(bubbledragon, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual Migraine Auras in Dreams?, March 22, 2006)

Seeing is believing

By Christine Geiger

I called out sick today. I have had a visual migraine for about 7 hours now. It blocks the vision in my right eye. Which is bad because I can sort of see, but can't see to drive, and can't really see out in front of me too far. I have my head turned all the way to the right so my left eye is doing all the work, which makes tyiping easy but not perfect.

I'm sure there will be typos like mad in this entry, and I will return and fix them later when my right eyeball works. For nothing else other than my foolish pride.

It has been a while since I've had a migraine without pain. I've had a couple doozies in the past several months, and I think my major trigger is dehydration.

Saturday I don't think I drank any liquid, aside from the two cups of coffee I had that morning and a gingerale with my (very salty) pizza. Sunday I was parched and drank water like mad but I think the damage was done. and today I am in recovery mode. So I've got my water by my side, and will go lay down on the bed and hope this starts to abate.

Suffice to say, if I can't see I can't drive or play Guitar Hero. Rats. What good is staying home sick if one cannot play video games. Sigh. Oh well. I can see to bring some boxes down to start taking ornaments off of the tree... perhaps that is what I'll do to feel like I've accomplished something today.

It was funny how this one started. I was actually fast asleep and I saw visions under my eyelids. I've written here before how I usually get this frosted glass kind of sensation on my periphery, and this was the same... only I was dreaming while it was happening and so it was a lot like being awake and having it happen. Kind of hard to explain, but when my eyes are open, when I am awake, it creeps in from the sides to block my vision.

It did it to my dream too. I remember saying in my dream that "I think I'm getting a migraine and better go take my medication" to whomever it was I was talking with (dream details often don't stick for me) and then woke up. Or, I should say my very wise Brain woke me up so I could go get to the bathroom and get medicine.

It took me a few seconds to realize where I was. That I wasn't outside in the sunshine talking with a friend. I was in bed and it was dark, and night, and I'd been sleeping.

So I wondered if I was just having a dream about a migraine. I got up and went to the bathroom and looked up at the bathroom wall, and there it was ... the frosted glass. Creeping in.

Kind of cool in a weird stupid way. Thank you, Brain, for waking me up in time to take meds. I think that taking them right then is what prevented the pain part of this one from kicking in. And I like that.

Now I just need to get my vision back.

...

Anyway. I guess that is about it. I'm going to go hit the bed. Fold some laundry. Lay back and just rest this brain. Maybe a little more sleep will fix things. And hopefully I won't keep myself a wake writing lists in my head of all the things I could be doing while at home.

Oh -- and I will come back and fix any errors in typing here. I can't quite see, and am amazed I've gotten this far wit han entry today.

Yay me and my blind ass self.

(Christine Geiger, (a)musings - Seeing is believing, January 8, 2007)

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

Somatosensory symptoms experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming

"In another migraine dream, which he had always assumed was the controlling reality, he realized that his arms and legs had lost all feeling. Nonetheless he was propelled resolutely forward, past tragic landscapes inundated by tides of howling, dying apes.

The scenarios were presented to him as a series of images appearing at the top of a curved horizon, and rolling slowly by his sides. Some of the images tore him with fists gripping migraine daggers; others, silent and incomprehensible, did not threaten him. In all instances, the arms and legs functioned like the dead limbs of an automaton.

One of the migraine visions manifested itself as a slender icon growing out of the arc of a burning meadow. As he approached, the icon was resolved into the familiar shape of an aircraft's tail section, surrounded by the flames and sour odors of a catastrophic crash.

In the center of this chaos, surrounded by mangled metal and corpses, an unharmed infant stood poised on all fours, like the last, defiant lion in the ruined plains of Africa.

The hunchback shuddered with pain as the arms and legs carried him past this most recent blessing of the migraine. The infant's eyes were wide and malevolent as it stomped around the flames and away from the carnage.

Hunchback and infant slowly receded to opposite horizons."

(Lost webpage, October 12, 2004)

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

Tinnitus experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming

"I had a similar experience around a year ago... I was asleep, dreaming, when suddenly I experienced (in the context of my dream) what felt like a *HUGE* jolt of electricity at the base of my skull... simultaneous with this I experienced a huge, echoing hum/zap/boom (hope you get the idea here) sound. I awoke *immediately*, with the sound of the 'jolt' still seeming to echo in my ears... for the rest of the day I felt a bit 'out of it' cognitively... I felt 'post migraine', for those of you who know what I mean by that. Strange. I'm wondering if I actually had some kind of seizure while I slept..."

(L. Gardner, Newsgroups: alt.dreams, Subject: Re: Unwelcome paralysis + Brain pulses, November 15, 1994)

"Most of my migraines wake me up in the middle of the night. So there I'll be, dreaming along, and suddenly HALF of the vision of my dream will go black, or be replaced by fireworks, or zigzig/newsprint patterns. It always wakes me up immediately.

The next two auras I didn't figure out until I read Oliver Sack's book on migraines. Like Dudgie and Debbie I am always sensitive to sound beforehand. But I was being awakened by a loud noise that had nothing to do with my dreams. I would 'hear' breaking glass and make my husband go check the windows. I heard running feet noises and I heard the voice of my daughter right in my ear. I would get up out of bed and go look at her -- nope, sound asleep. Until I read the book I did not realize that they were auditory auras, only in one ear, and connected them with the headache. ...

Amazing feats the human brain can perform (or is it playing tricks!)"

(Reader77, BrainTalk Communities, Subject: What's "Weird" About YOUR H/A's?, March 29, 2004)

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

Vertigo experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming

Janice's vertigo and its effect on dreaming

"Most of my migs were ones I woke up with - and all of those were preceded by an 'aura' dream - of spinning, falling, or flashing strobe lights, then I would wake with a 7+ at the least."

(Jane, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: oh no,migraines in my dream,tell me it isn't so!, March 30, 1999)

"Regarding the continuing saga of my vertigo and its effects on dreaming, the room was spinning again today when I woke up, and when I got back to sleep I had a lucid dream in which the scene was spinning in a very realistic manner, unlike the cartoonish effect the other day when slices of the landscape were sliding around. In fact the vertigo was stronger in the dream than it was in reality, because when I got out of bed in the dream (I think it was a regular lucid false awakening, not an OBE-type lucid dream) I was wobbling around very off-balance as I headed for the window. But as before the effect eventually stopped."

(Janice, Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body, Subject: Dream vertigo, June 22, 2000)

Talyastarr's vertigo during lucid dreams

"I myself have been diagnosed with audio-visual migraines just this year. ... In fact, they are quite unique. It's more like being on a weak acid trip in that things appear to move or float or warp... and sound is completely disrupted... at one point it sounded as if i was under water. I have had several of these, but they are not accompanied by the migraine headache, instead the symptoms are disruptions in my audio and visual sensory input, the constricting and dilating of my pupils, nausea, dizziness... weakness. ...
Now, i will say this: In some of my dreams I have experienced dizziness, nausea, imbalance, weakness and observed a warped environment, including auditory distortions. I have also been somewhat 'aware' or 'lucid' at these times. I believe it is more than likely or possible that at these points I am simply suffering from one of my migraines during my sleep..."

(Talyastarr, Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body, Subject: OBEs and art, May 25, 2000)

"I have experienced severe dizziness/vertigo during a lucid dream on more than one occassion. So extreme to the point where it was difficult to walk. I was diagnosed with a certain kind of migraine [i.e. basilar-type migraine] in which a common symptom is slight vertigo."

(Talyastarr, Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body, Subject: Dream vertigo, June 22, 2000; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

Out-of-body experiences occurring as migraine aura whilst dreaming

"I once let myself be pulled into a certain OBE building and down, down, down several floors, where I got the feeling that some unseen forces were pressuring me, and I woke up with a migraine. I find it more likely that the migraine caused the negative OBE than the reverse. That's about it."

(Janice, Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body, Subject: Some OBE experiences, August 28, 2001)

OBE for spirit communication?

By Meliss

I had an experience on the morning of 4/30/2003. I usually sleep a bit later than most people; it started out with a fairly commonplace lucid dream, which only lasted a short while before I woke up with a ferocious migraine headache that seemed likely to last all day (or longer). I let myself go unconcious again, I couldn't think of anything I needed to be awake for.

I was quickly back into another lucid dream. In my place of employment, which is a long narrow room having an often-opened dock door at one end. As I became lucid, the room morphed into a tunnel. The people seemed to change and take on a surrealistic appearance, and they walked slowly in the direction opposite the dock door; the usual wall etc being replaced with open air and relatively bright light. They seemed to be ignoring me, but I followed after them.

At the point of the tunnel ending, the scene had seemingly changed to a slightly upwards pathway paved with small off-white stones. After a short distance, the pathway turned right and merged/morphed into a bank lobby where there was someone sitting behind a desk. He also paid no attention to my being there. Behind him was a typical-looking vault door, that was (oddly) left a little bit open. I was curious, so I walked past him and squeezed myself through the gap in the vault door :-)

Inside, there were a lot of what looked like deposit-boxes. I went to one and opened it (locks don't matter in dreams). Inside was what looked like a business journal; I could actually read it clearly, and the words stayed the same. There were dated entries spanning from 1926 to a last entry of May 16 1953; with descriptions that I could read in english, though they didn't seem very meaningful to me. I knew how bad my memory is for dream recall, so I made an effort to memorize the first and last dates.

While I was doing that, I hadn't been paying attention to the vault room. In the center, a hazy cloud was starting to superimpose some sort of hologram onto the room. A really old-looking hospital room; on a bed there was a youngish woman (30?) with most of her head and neck in a cast, and part of one shoulder. Kind of motionless, but when I got too close, she sat up and grabbed me by the wrist (very strongly).

The experience became stranger. It seemed almost as though parts of her thoughts/feelings and memories were being pushed into my awareness.

An image of her driving one of those old 40's-style cars, a convertible with rear seats. Driver's side on the left. Not a stick-shift. Painted in some dark color. Past well-kept houses in some small town. Most of the roads not paved but otherwise in good condition.

And then an image of her laying in that bed, and (1'st person) looking up at some people who seemed to be her loved ones, in particular a young girl who she loved beyond all description. And some flowers to one side of a window. She wanted so much to speak, and to move. But she couldn't.

I kind of got the sense that she died in that hospital room, but you'd never be able to tell her that. Amongst waves of sadness, and emotional need to be back with those loved ones, and absolute terror over something which wasn't exactly being communicated.

As she broke off contact with me, the last thought sent was the expectation that I was supposed to find these people and tell them that it was OK, and that she still existed. But all of this communication happened without words. I never got any names. And what am I supposed to do? If this were in some way real, and if she died on 5/16/53, then it's all so long past that I don't know how to find the needed information based on the very little that I "know". I wasn't even alive then.

When I woke up again, only about an hour had passed. The severe migraine was completely gone, the visual distortions also. But this strange lucid dream was much too powerful for me, and it left it's mark. For one thing, I cried almost continuously for several hours, in sympathy for a person who may or may not have been a dream character. Or was it a dream? I may never know ...

(Meliss, Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body, Subject: Re: obe for spirit communication, September 13, 2004)

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

Idea of a presence experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming

"Beastly Migraine: Okay. So I had another migraine dream! As I was awakening in the pain of a migraine, in my dream, I sensed but didn't actually feel tactically, that a creature was clinging to me. I got up (in the dream) and looked in the mirror. All I could see was the creature's tentacle snaking through my hair and boring into my temple where the seat of the pain was. Capturing this scene was a new challenge for me -- my first nude... and not one, but two! This image was painted in Photoshop 7.0, using a Wacom graphics tablet.

** This piece has received a Merit award and will be exhibited in the Migraine Masterpieces exhibition in July, 2003, Chicago, IL -- sponsored by the National Headache Foundation."

(Molly Barr, artist's website, November 21, 2004)

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

Déjà vu sensations experienced as migraine aura whilst dreaming

"Luckily my migraines are a nightmare of the past - formerly my teen ages. But yes, I remember that while suffering a migraine I experienced many, many déjà vus, which happened mostly when I was outdoor. I used to have migraine symptoms after awakening from such dreams with déjà vu sensations. Maybe migraine aura phenomena like déjà vu may also be experienced whilst dreaming? Now that my migraine vanished, I still awake with a déjà vu sensation now and then, but with no migraine symptoms at all. Once, the two things were absolutely tied up."

(Andrea B. Previtera, Email to Klaus Podoll, November 21, 2004) [more]

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

References

Féré C. Note sur des rêves précurseurs de la migraine ophthalmique. Rev Méd 1903; 23: 127-130.
Lippman CW. Recurrent dreams in migraine: an aid to diagnosis. J Nerv Ment Dis 1954; 120: 273-276.
Podoll K, Robinson D. Out-of-body experiences and related phenomena in migraine art. Cephalalgia 1999; 19: 886-896.
Podoll K, Töpper R, Robinson D, Saß H. Wiederkehrende Träume als Aurasymptome der Migräne. Fortschr Neurol Psychiat 2000; 68: 145-149.
Sacks OW. A leg to stand on. Duckworth, London 1984.
Sacks OW. Migraine. Revised and expanded. University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-Oxford 1992.
Sacks OW. Neurological dreams. In: Barrett D (ed) Trauma and Dreams. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1996, pp. 212-216.