Hypnic Headache

Hypnic headache is a special type of headache that usually occurs in the elderly, and more often it occurs in women. Most patients are over the age of 65 and may or may not have a past history of headaches.

This type of headache may be related to cluster headaches, in that they are tied to sleep cycles. Many times patients wake up with these headaches and like cluster headaches they are short lived, lasting from a few minutes to up to 3 hours. They may occur on both sides of the head, or only on one side.

Unlike the cluster headaches, there is no runny nose, no red eyes.

As always, a new onset of headache in the elderly may be due to other causes and should be worked up to rule out hypertension and the rare possibility of tumors in the brain.

Read more about types of emergency headaches.

Treatment of Hypnic Headache

At the present time, medications for cluster headaches are not used for these headaches mainly due to the age of the patient.

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