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SYMPTOMS | PATHOMECHANISMS | HISTORY

Symptoms

Transitory aura symptoms

Visual illusions

Visual loss

Persistent aura symptoms

Psychological experience

Author: Klaus Podoll	11. May 2007
Edited by: Klaus Podoll

Disturbances of dreaming

A migraine sufferer may experience one or more of the following types of disturbances of dreaming:

• Perception of the pain of nocturnal migraine attacks during dreams

• Unusual powerful, vivid or weird dreams associated with migraine headaches

• Nightmares associated with migraine headaches

• Recurring dreams as migraine aura experiences

• Migraine aura symptoms experienced whilst dreaming

• Other disturbances of dreaming associated with migraine

A Usenet Newsgroups discussion on dreams and migraines

"Greetings All, Yesterday I woke up to a horrible migraine. It started when I was having a really bad dream and when I was finally able to wake, my head was pounding. Has anyone else gotten a migraine because of a bad dream? Thanks in advance, Sherry"

(Sherry, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Re: Dreams & Migraines, December 30, 1996)

"I'd say (as my opinion) that you've got cause and effect reversed. I don't recall my dreams very often, but I have experienced waking up in the middle of the night with some confused and distressing nightmare, all caused by the really intense racing-around-in-circles mind that precedes my migraines."

(Derreck Chapman, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Re: Dreams & Migraines, December 30, 1996)

"Hi Sherry, I would tend to think that it was the other way around..... that you got the bad dream because a migraine was imminent. I wake up with migraines and always wonder why I get migraines when I'm supposed to be 'relaxed'"

(Jeanne Connell, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Re: Dreams & Migraines, December 31, 1996)

"Oh yes, I have this problem, too. I am dreaming a lot, and if it is a bad dream I often awake with terrible migraine. My husband read a book from Oliver Sacks, it's called Migraine. There he wrote that migraine often beginns in the awakening period. It could be that those dreams are already the symptoms of migraine, just like an aura. And I often have intensive dreams just before I awake. I recognized that I have to stand up early although I am very very tired in the morning. Otherwise I will get headaches and then those headaches will soon become terrible migrains."

(Anneclaire, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Re: Dreams & Migraines, December 30, 1996)

"Hi Sherry, I always assumed the dreams happened because of the migraine, not the reverse. Any insight, anyone?"

(Fran, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Re: Dreams & Migraines, December 31, 1996)

"Hi Sherry, I've woken from all sorts of dreams with a migraine, including from nightmares. I'm not sure if the nightmare causes the migraine, if the migraine causes the nightmare, or if the two events just happen to occur at the same time!"

(Jan G, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Re: Dreams & Migraines, December 30, 1996)

In addition to the aforementioned disturbances of dreaming which occur as sequelae of the symptoms of the acute migraine attack (i.e. conscious perception of the pain and other symptoms of acute nocturnal migraine attacks during dreams) or as migraine aura, a migraine sufferer may also dream about migraines - as the dream's manifest content - just because it is a subject matter of considerable interest for any patient concerned about his or her malady and hoping for a cure of the recurring headaches.

Off with her/his head! A migraineur's dream

"For example, I had a migraine headache and I complained whimpily to my husband. In his frustration of his inability to help me... he said 'give me your head and I'll chop it off.' That night I dreamed of chopping his head off. I woke up miserable and told him about it. He laughed and reminded me that he had teased me about cutting my head off a day earlier. I felt so much better... because that dream was such a nightmare."

(Peggy, Newsgroups: alt.dreams, Subject: Dreaming of killing people (kinda), September 5, 1999)

Cover of Altan Loker, Migraines and dreams – Self-psychotherapy, 2002 (see here).

Whereas the assignment of Freudian symbolic meanings to such dreams about migraine (e.g. Tarachow, 1946; Loker, 2002) seems to be questionable and, at any rate, unsupported by evidence-based medicine (e.g., dream symbol: migraine; interpretation: high resistance to life in general, being unable to live in a state of acceptance or allowance, sexual fears or phobias, see here), anecdotical observations such as the following seem to make sense in terms of Freud's (1900) wish fulfilment theory on dreaming.

My dream ...

By Infrazone

"Last night I dreamed that the human genome was hacked, the migraine gene identified and a cure was developed into a little tiny pill and we all took the pill and became the first people in the history of mankind to be 'free of the demons in our head' and ASHM [alt.support.headaches.migraine] became one big celebration..."

(Infrazone, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: My dream..., February 20, 2001; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

On which dream a sympathetic fellow migraine sufferer, Redagerton, commented: "Sounds good, although if I were migraine free, it does not necessarily mean that *I* would be free from the 'demons in my head.'"

(Redagerton, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: My dream..., February 20, 2001)

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.
Forbes A. Dream scintillations. Psychosom Med 1949; 2: 160-162.
Freud S. Die Traumdeutung. Deuticke, Wien 1900.
Lippman CW. Recurrent dreams in migraine: an aid to diagnosis. J Nerv Ment Dis 1954; 120: 273-276.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=13233971
Loker A. Migraines and Dreams: Self-Psychotherapy. Trafford Publishing (UK) Limited, Oxford 2002 (ISBN 1-4120-0218-4)
Podoll K, Robinson D. Migraine Art - The Migraine Experience from Within. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California 2009, p. 222-224.
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.
Saul LJ. Dream scintillations. Psychosom Med 1956; 27: 286-289.
Tarachow S. The analysis of a dream occuring during a migraine attack. Psychoanalytic Review 1946; 33: 335-340.

Legal Disclaimer: This content is not intended to replace conventional medical treatment. Any references and suggestions made are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. All material contained herein is provided for general information purposes only and should not be considered medical advice or consultation. Contact a physician/neurologist if you are in need of medical care.

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Pre-publication research on migraine with aura

NEW BOOK: Klaus Podoll & Derek Robinson, Migraine Art - The Migraine Experience from Within