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Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms Explained
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Migraine symptoms can disrupt far more than the hours when head pain is strongest. A person may first notice unusual tiredness, neck stiffness, food cravings, mood change, light sensitivity, nausea, visual disturbance or tingling, then struggle with a pulsing headache that makes screens, commuting and normal conversation difficult. Some people have aura and some do not. The useful first step is to notice the whole pattern—not to label every headache as migraine. A clear record of what happened before, during and after an episode helps a doctor or Registered Chinese Medicine Practitioner understand what needs assessment, what may be a personal trigger, and whether supportive options are appropriate.
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The short answer
Migraine symptoms often include moderate to severe throbbing head pain, nausea or vomiting, and sensitivity to light or sound. Migraine aura symptoms may include flashing lights, blind spots, tingling, dizziness or difficulty speaking. A migraine attack can also begin with fatigue, yawning, thirst or neck stiffness before head pain. Keep a diary of timing, symptoms and medicines, and seek urgent assessment for sudden severe or unusual neurological symptoms.
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Includes Chinese medicine musculoskeletal assessment, manual joint techniques and tui na.
HK$580 (single session)
Chinese medicine musculoskeletal assessment
Pain care (acupuncture and manual therapy)
Combines acupuncture and manual therapy.
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Combined care
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Includes AI scalp analysis, deep scalp and follicle cleansing, and scalp oil-control care.
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Regular price: HK$680
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Chinese medicine consultation with pulse assessment
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: What to Notice
Migraine symptoms are a group of experiences, rather than one fixed kind of headache. The pain is often described as throbbing or pulsating and may be severe enough to interrupt work, study, driving or family plans. Nausea, vomiting and unusual sensitivity to light and sounds are also common. Movement can make the pain feel worse, which is why an ordinary walk up stairs or a busy MTR journey may suddenly feel demanding. The NHS describes migraine as an attack pattern with severe headache, sickness and sensitivity to light, and notes that the headache is often one-sided and aggravated by moving around [1]. Yet a person can have migraine pain on both sides, and not every one-sided headache is migraine. Notice the combination of pain, accompanying symptoms and repeat pattern rather than relying on a single feature.
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: Pain and Associated Signs
Migraine aura symptoms are temporary neurological symptoms that some people experience before or around the beginning of head pain. Visual changes are well known: flashing lights, zigzag lines, shimmering areas or a blind spot can make it hard to read a phone, recognise a platform sign or look at a bright window. Other aura symptoms can include pins-and-needles, numbness, dizziness or trouble finding words. Aura does not mean that a person is simply over-tired or that the episode is harmless; it is one part of a pattern that should be described accurately. It is also possible to have migraine without aura, so the absence of visual symptoms does not rule it out.
Timing helps make the description clinically useful. The NHS says aura symptoms should not last longer than one hour, while migraine attacks usually last from four hours to three days; early symptoms can begin hours or up to two days before head pain [1]. Those time ranges are general information, not a reason to wait out a symptom that is new or alarming. Write down whether the visual or sensory change grew gradually or arrived suddenly, which side was involved, how long it lasted, and whether weakness, loss of vision, confusion or speech change occurred. That detail is more valuable in an assessment than saying only, “I had a bad migraine.”
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: Keeping a Headache Diary
A headache diary is most helpful when it is brief enough to keep consistently. Start each entry with the date, start and finish time, and what you were doing when the first symptom appeared. Add any aura, pain description, sickness, sensitivity, sleep change and effect on daily activities. It can also be useful to note meals, caffeine, alcohol, stress, exercise, travel, weather changes and menstrual timing where relevant. These are observations, not a list of universal triggers. A food or a late night may appear beside one attack by coincidence, so look for repeated patterns over several episodes before assuming a cause.
The diary should also show what you did in response. Note whether you rested in a dark, quiet room, used a cool or warm compress for comfort, drank fluids, or took a medicine that has been recommended to you. Avoid turning diary-keeping into an exhausting attempt to control every variable. Its purpose is to support a conversation about frequency, severity and burden. If painkillers are needed regularly, raise this with a clinician rather than silently increasing use: the NHS warns that taking painkillers on more than two days a week can lead to more headaches and make migraine harder to treat [1].
Compare your options
| What to record | Example of a useful note | Why it can help the discussion |
|---|---|---|
| Onset and duration | Visual shimmering began at 9:20 am; throbbing pain started at 10:05 am and eased overnight. | Shows the sequence of possible aura and head pain. |
| Pain and associated symptoms | Pulsing pain near the right temple, nausea, light sensitivity and worse on walking upstairs. | Captures more than location or a pain score alone. |
| Daily context | Poor sleep, skipped lunch and a long screen-based meeting; no alcohol that day. | May reveal repeated circumstances without assuming one cause. |
| Response and medicines | Rested in a dark room; took the prescribed medicine at the recorded time; nausea continued. | Helps a clinician assess effect and medication-use patterns. |
| What changed | First episode with speech difficulty, or pain was much more sudden than usual. | Highlights a feature that may need more urgent assessment. |
On smaller screens, scroll the table sideways to compare all columns.
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: Sorting Headache Patterns
Think about the disruption as well as the discomfort. Does the person need to stop moving and lie down? Can they still tolerate ordinary light and sound? Are attacks predictable around a menstrual period, a change in sleep, missed meals, work pressure or travel? Has a neck injury, infection, new medication or change in vision occurred? A clinician may ask these questions to decide whether the episodes fit a primary headache pattern or whether another cause needs consideration. The page on migraine red flags explains why a sudden or unfamiliar presentation should not be treated as routine simply because someone has had headaches before.
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: Migraine or Tension Headache?
Tension-type headache is often described as a pressing, tight or band-like feeling, commonly on both sides of the head. It may be associated with muscle tenderness or prolonged screen and desk work, but it is usually not made substantially worse by routine activity and is less likely to include vomiting. Migraine pain can also involve the neck or both sides of the head, so this distinction is not a test to perform at home. The useful question is whether there is a repeated attack pattern involving throbbing pain, nausea and sensory sensitivity, and how strongly normal life is affected. A written history gives a doctor better material than trying to choose a diagnosis from symptom names alone.
People sometimes call any severe headache a migraine, while others avoid the word because they do not have aura. Neither shortcut is reliable. Some migraine attacks have no warning phase, and some people experience aura without the familiar head pain. If your headache is frequent, changes your ability to work or care for others, or has started to require repeated medication, arrange a medical review. For a practical question about escalation, When should I go to hospital for a migraine? can help you recognise when routine monitoring is no longer the right response.
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: When a Pattern Changes
A familiar diagnosis does not make every new headache safe to ignore. Seek immediate emergency help for a headache that comes on suddenly and is extremely painful, or for headache with confusion, a seizure, high fever and meningitis symptoms, new weakness on one side, inability to move part of the face or body, or after a recent head injury. The NHS also identifies new speech or memory problems, loss of vision and blurred or double vision as reasons for emergency action [1]. These signs need urgent medical assessment, not a diary entry and not a wait for a routine complementary-care appointment.
Contact a doctor promptly if attacks are becoming severe or worsening, last longer than usual, occur more than once a week, are difficult to control, or if aura lasts longer than an hour. Pregnancy or the period just after birth are also situations in which a prolonged attack needs urgent advice. This is not meant to make every headache frightening. It is a way to separate a known, stable pattern from a symptom that needs a new clinical decision. When you seek care, say clearly what is different: onset speed, intensity, duration, location, neurological symptoms, medicine response or relevant injury.
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: Assessment and Support
A migraine assessment begins with your story. A doctor may ask about the course of attacks, aura, pain quality, nausea, family history, menstrual pattern, sleep, stress, injuries, current medicines and neurological symptoms. Examination or further tests may be considered when the history suggests another cause. Bring your headache diary and be honest about how often medicines are used, even if the answer feels inconvenient. The purpose is to decide what type of support fits the problem and what safety issues come first. No website can make that decision from a few symptoms.
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: What a Chinese Medicine Consultation Covers
For a migraine-focused consultation, prepare a concise account rather than trying to interpret the pattern yourself. Explain where the pain begins, whether it throbs, presses or stabs, how it progresses, what happens before and after it, and which daily activities it stops you doing. Mention nausea, vomiting, visual changes, tingling, sleep disruption, mood changes and any relation to meals, caffeine, workload, exercise, travel or menstruation. The practitioner may use observation, listening, questioning and palpation within a traditional assessment. That conversation can identify issues to monitor, but it should not override red-flag symptoms or a clinician’s advice about medical investigation.
You may ask whether migraine acupuncture is a reasonable supportive topic for your situation. Acupuncture is generally discussed in the context of prevention, rather than as a promised immediate answer during an acute attack. A Cochrane review of episodic migraine prevention found moderate-certainty evidence overall, with a small effect over sham acupuncture; its authors also noted that longer-term studies were lacking [3]. This supports a balanced conversation about potential value and limits, not a guarantee of relief, a fixed number of sessions, or a reason to stop prescribed treatment.
Migraine Symptoms, Migraine Aura Symptoms and Migraine Attack Symptoms: Prevention, Comfort and Safety
Prevention is usually about recognising patterns and building a plan with the clinician who knows your history. Regular meals, sleep, hydration, movement and stress support are often discussed because disruptions in these areas can be relevant for some people. It is more realistic to aim for a steadier routine than to pursue a perfect trigger-free life. If bright light is a problem during an attack, reducing light and resting in a quiet room may be more comfortable. A cold or warm pack may feel soothing for some people, but stop if it aggravates symptoms and protect the skin from extreme temperature. Comfort measures do not replace assessment when symptoms are severe, unfamiliar or changing.
Medication plans should be personalised. Take medicines only as advised by your doctor or pharmacist, and seek advice if attacks remain disruptive or if you are relying on pain relief frequently. Your diary can show whether an acute treatment is being taken early enough, whether nausea makes oral medicines difficult, or whether the pattern points to a preventive discussion. It can also prevent a common misunderstanding: an apparent trigger may be an early symptom of migraine. For example, a craving or tiredness that occurs before pain may be part of the attack rather than its cause.
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Your questions, answered
Frequently asked questions
How long do migraine attack symptoms usually last?
Migraine attacks commonly last from four hours to three days, although early symptoms can start before the head pain and tiredness or poor concentration may continue after it. Seek urgent advice if an attack lasts longer than 72 hours, and urgent assessment if aura lasts longer than an hour or symptoms are new, severe or different from your usual pattern.
What should I do if migraine aura symptoms include trouble speaking?
Treat new trouble speaking, weakness, loss of vision, confusion or sudden severe headache as urgent symptoms rather than assuming they are routine aura. Seek emergency medical help, especially if the symptoms are unlike your established pattern. Record the timing if you can do so safely, but do not delay care to complete a diary.
Can a headache diary identify my migraine triggers?
It can help identify repeated relationships between attacks and factors such as sleep, meals, stress, menstruation, travel or caffeine. A single association does not prove a trigger, and some apparent triggers may actually be early migraine symptoms. Review the diary with a healthcare professional rather than imposing restrictive changes on the basis of one or two attacks.
Can Chinese medicine or acupuncture cure migraine?
Chinese medicine may be discussed as an individual supportive option after consultation, and acupuncture is sometimes considered for prevention. Neither approach can promise a cure or replace medical assessment, prescribed care or urgent evaluation for red flags. Share your diagnosis, symptom diary and all current medicines so any care can be considered safely.
Sources and further information
- [1] NHS — Migraine
Referenced for: Official public-health information on migraine symptoms, aura, duration, urgent warning signs, headache diaries, treatment and medication-overuse warning.
- [2] Hong Kong Adventist Hospital — Lifestyle Tips to Prevent Migraines and Headaches
Referenced for: Hong Kong hospital health guide supporting local English symptom and aura terminology.
- [3] Cochrane — Acupuncture for preventing migraine attacks
Referenced for: Systematic-review evidence and limitations concerning acupuncture for episodic migraine prevention.