Early Signs of Migraine: Understanding My Symptoms (VIDEO)

Written by Manuel Penton, M.D.

Updated on August 1, 2024

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Key Takeaways

Celeste, who has lived with migraine for over 30 years, shares how pre-headache warning signs like neck tightness, dizziness, light sensitivity, and blurry vision help her predict when a migraine is coming within the next day or two.

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Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:10
Celeste
My name is Celeste Theodore, and I'm a member of MyMigraineTeam. I would say people that are dealing with pre-headache warning signs, just know that you're not alone. If you're working or if you're a mom, that's really hard to deal with them. When I was raising my kids, it was very hard to function with little kids because it's just so busy.

00:00:25:12 - 00:00:51:07
Celeste
So some pre-headache warning signs or prodrome symptoms, that I experienced for the migraine, I feel the tightness come on. It starts in the back of the neck, and it moves to tightness in the shoulders and a little bit of dizziness, light sensitivity, and blurry vision. I know that that's a warning sign that migraine will be coming within the next day or two.

00:00:51:09 - 00:01:20:24
Celeste
My neurologist suggested that I use heat, or I can use ice, on the back of my neck and my shoulders to loosen things up. I always carry my migraine medication in my purse, so that way, if I feel it coming on, I can nip it in the bud. One of the things my neurologist had me do was start a journal, and it’s been pretty helpful in logging my symptoms, the duration of my migraines, how often they occur, what happened that day,

00:01:20:24 - 00:01:41:03
Celeste
to find out a pattern of what I thought might be causing them, so that we could come up with a plan together in treating them together. I've been living with migraines for 31 years. Just know that you can get through this.

If you live with migraine, you’ve likely experienced symptoms that precede the start of the headache.

In this video, one MyMigraineTeam member, Celeste, talks about some of these symptoms — which can be thought of as early migraine warning signs — and how she uses them to predict an approaching migraine headache.

Pre-Headache Symptoms

Celeste has been living with migraine for over 30 years. During that time, she’s learned that managing the disease can be hard to juggle with working and raising children. But over the years, she’s made time to work with her neurologist to identify symptoms that start early in her migraine attacks and likely mean a migraine headache is on the way.

Celeste’s early migraine symptoms include:

Tightness or stiffness in the neck and shoulders
Dizziness
Sensitivity to light
Vision changes

Those are just a few of the many different early warning symptoms people with migraine experience. Others include:

Fatigue¹
Mood changes¹
Yawning¹
Food cravings²
Nausea¹

The early migraine symptoms here may occur in the first phase of a migraine attack, called the prodrome phase, which can start between two and 48 hours before the headache begins.^1,3 Studies have shown that between 38 percent and 77 percent of people diagnosed with migraine experience symptoms in the prodrome phase.^2,3

It’s possible to treat migraine in this prodrome phase if you work with your doctor.³^,⁴

People with migraine may experience many different early warning symptoms.

Advice From the Neurologist

Like many people living with migraine, Celeste views her neurologist as a great source of advice on how to live a better life while managing the disease. She has picked up several helpful tips during her neurology visits.

For example, because one of Celeste’s prodrome symptoms is stiffness or tightness in the neck or shoulders, her neurologist suggested placing heat or ice on the back of her neck and shoulders to “loosen things up” and make her more comfortable, she says.

Celeste has also learned to always carry migraine medication so that if she experiences early signs of a migraine, she can treat it right away. Also, to identify those early signs, Celeste says her doctor had her start a journal to log her symptoms so they could identify patterns and come up with a plan together to treat them.

Talk With Your Physician

Whether you were recently diagnosed with migraine or — like Celeste — have been living with the disease for decades, your physician can be a valuable source of new advice. Talking with your doctor about symptoms that can occur in the prodrome phase of migraine might help you predict when a migraine headache is about to happen.⁴ It’s possible that in some scenarios, you too may be able to identify symptoms you can treat early and avoid some migraine headaches.⁴