How it differs from migraine
With migraine you lie down, with cluster headache you cannot keep still.
They are often confused, yet treated differently. The main differences:
- Duration: cluster 15–180 minutes, migraine 4 hours to 3 days.
- Behaviour: migraine means lying in the dark, cluster means pacing and rocking.
- Eye: in cluster headache it reddens and waters on the pain side, the nose runs.
- Frequency: cluster up to 8 a day, in runs.
Ordinary painkillers barely help in cluster headache: the attack ends before the pill starts to work.
Sources
- ICHD-3, sections 1 and 3.1