The widely overlooked cause of your migraines – and the simple fix that DOESN’T involve drugs

For nearly ten million people in the UK, it’s an inescapable regular event. Migraine, which causes episodes of severe headache often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light, has no known cause and no cure.

And so, sufferers are expected to manage as best they can. Medication can help but, just as importantly, patients are advised to identify and avoid triggers – the everyday factors that can bring on an attack, such as stress, tiredness, hormonal changes, certain foods or even bright lights.

Despite this, those who have the condition suffer an average of three migraines each month – rising to 15 or more in the worst cases.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, experts say many sufferers may be bringing on their headaches in another, more unexpected way – by getting too much sleep.

It’s just one of a myriad of unusual triggers that doctors say can play a role.

Dr Philip Holland, a neuroscientist at King’s College London, says: ‘Many people list lack of sleep as a cause of their migraine attacks. This may be because they get migraines on the weekend – a very common phenomenon – after a busy week of work and a late night.

‘What they may not realise is actually, it’s not the lack of sleep that’s triggering it, but the change in routine.

‘Having a lie-in when you’re not used to it may actually be the thing that’s making someone more susceptible to attacks.’

Last week, our GP columnist Dr Ellie Cannon wrote about the phenomenon of atypical migraine triggers in her weekly column. A sufferer herself, she expressed dismay that so many of her patients were unaware they can lower their risk of migraine without medication, by avoiding triggers.

Writing that she had curbed her own attacks by cutting back on onions, coffee and fizzy drinks, she asked readers whether they had found a solution to their migraines – and was flooded with emails and letters.

One woman in her 80s wrote that she cured her migraines by no longer buying cheap supermarket chocolate – which can be full of artificial sweeteners, substances that some researchers say can induce migraine attacks.

Another woman said she hadn’t had a headache in a decade since cutting out citrus fruits.

And one migraine sufferer admitted the strange fix to her debilitating migraine attacks was cutting off her mother – a solution which she put down to the resulting lack of stress and anxiety.

Experts say that while migraine triggers do tend to vary from patient to patient, many more than may realise it have the ability to limit and reduce the number of attacks they suffer.

‘Most migraine specialists will ask patients to keep a headache diary of what they were doing, eating and feeling before and during the attack,’ said Dr Holland.

‘This will help them find a pattern of triggers, which can then allow them to avoid them.’

For Hull-based recruiter Chris Wharram, 63, migraines were a regular part of his life until he figured out the common factor that was causing them: dehydration. ‘When I was younger, I wasn’t even aware of drinking water – I would drink more coffee and tea than water,’ he explained.

‘From my 20s, however, I was also experiencing regular migraine attacks – usually on a Sunday morning after a boozy Saturday night.’

It wasn’t until a particularly bad attack in his early 50s, however, that Chris put two and two together. ‘I was at a client’s house when it began and he gave me a glass of water when he realised something was wrong,’ Chris said.

‘I downed two glasses and almost immediately the symptoms were gone. Since then, I know to drink water more regularly.

‘And as soon as I feel the symptoms arising, I rush to the tap and get a large glass of water, which usually stops the migraine in its tracks. I seldom get migraines at all now.’

Triggers like changes in sleeping routine and dehydration can bring on migraine by putting the brain into a sort of sensory overload, says Professor Peter Goadsby, director of the King’s Clinical Research Facility at the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and winner of the 2021 Brain Prize for migraine research.

‘Much of the function of the brain is to get rid of sensory information that you don’t need to know about – like the feeling of clothing on your skin, for example,’ he explained.

‘But it’s this complex process that goes wrong for people with migraine. They can suddenly become much more sensitive to things that wouldn’t bother others – or even them, normally.’

Aa a result, people may find themselves getting headaches from bright lights, loud noises, certain foods and even changes in the weather.

‘We know that the structure of the brain changes day to day and is influenced by sleep and circadian rhythm,’ said Prof Goadsby.

‘So while some people are more prone to migraine than others – largely due to their genetics – the brain can be pushed into sensory overload simply by changes to their routine.’

The best advice, say experts, is to avoid anything that you may have noticed tends to precede a migraine. And, more generally, go easy on alcohol and stick to a regular schedule – whether that’s sleep, meals or exercise – the fewer changes, the better, says Prof Goadsby.

‘If you notice that when you sleep in on Saturday morning, you have a headache when you wake up, set an alarm.

‘Alternatively, work out how long you can sleep in for before it triggers an attack,’ he said.

‘It sounds ungenerous but this is knowledge. You can treat an attack with medication once it’s begun, but the best route is to avoid it in the first place.

‘With migraine, you need to pick your battles.’