Cluster headaches are a rare phenomenon, but they can be extremely painful as well. Not only does the patient suffer excruciating pain during the time, the family member or those around are also usually most affected. Therefore it is imperative that you know the symptoms of cluster headaches well, as it might strike quite suddenly. Cluster headaches are thus named because these headaches usually occur periodically, with the bouts known as cluster periods. The cluster periods can last for few weeks to few months, with most common occurrence being from one or two cluster periods in a single year. The remissions are the time period when the person feels no bout of headaches, a period lasting from several months to several years. It is the symptoms of cluster headaches, which helps one to distinguish the same from migraines. While severity of the pain and the cyclical patterns are one of the immediate features of cluster headache, there are other factors as well, such as the area of pain, the duration and other accompanying signs of cluster headache.
Cluster headache targets the area around either eye, and usually the pain stays in the same eye for the entire cluster period. The pain is sharp and excruciating, so much that the patient almost feels as if the socket will come out the eye. Cluster headaches usually occur when the patient is sleeping, the pain becoming intense within mere 15 minutes. But the duration of the headache varies from five minutes to three hours, from once in a day to as frequent as eight times in a day. While the pattern varies from one person to another, the nature of the pain also varies, ranging from throbbing, piercing, explosive to deep and intense. During this time, the patient feels so helpless, that he prefers to move and pace around, instead of lying down, as the latter can intensify the patient. Thus, the person usually rocks with his or her head bowed down or prefers to be alone doing some rigorous activity. The restlessness is the immediate and among the most common symptoms of cluster headaches. Among the other symptoms of cluster headache, a person also goes through such signs as either runny or stuffy nasal passage, teary eyes (usually the side the headache has affected), flushed face, drooping eyelids, flushed face and swelling of the eye and the affected side.
Also among the symptoms of cluster headaches is the redness of the eye, sweating, increased heartbeat pace, Conjunctival hyperemia and extremely teary eyes. What makes the cluster headaches different is that the patient becomes extremely restless, impatient and irritable. There are also chances of him or her becoming violent, due to the severe pain. In most cases, the cluster attacks happen during the day rather than in the day time. The headaches are so severe that they can lead to depression in the patient. At the same time, while the attack is subsiding, the patient feels sharp triggers of pain, besides the severe form of pain. After the attack subsides, the patient may not have any more headache, but is usually very tired because of lack of sleep.
Know more about the other symptoms and signs of headache at Symptoms of Headaches
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