What Are Hypnic Headaches?

What Makes Them Different?

Hypnic headaches have several clinical features that help doctors in distinguishing them from other benign headache disorders. Primarily, what makes them different is that they occur only at night, never during the day. In fact, many patients experience repeated episodes at the same time at night, and this feature is why they are sometimes called 'alarm clock headaches.' Although they wake the patient from sleep, hypnic headaches rarely occur if the patient takes a nap during the daytime. Hypnic headaches also differ from other types in terms of their frequency. To be diagnosed with these headaches, patients must experience at least ten episodes each month. Up to fifty percent of patients with hypnic headaches will have episodes every night. The headaches interfere with sleep, and some patients are chronically unable to get sufficient rest.

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