Unilateral hypnic headache: A case study

Hypnic headache is a rare, benign, nocturnal, nonfamilial, primary headache disorder that affects elderly men and women.1 Autonomic features are usually absent. In all reported cases the pain was bilateral, had a throbbing quality, occurred a few hours after nighttime sleep, and resolved within 90 minutes. The attacks typically occurred one or two times a night. Lithium carbonate was an effective treatment. We report a 65-year-old woman who experienced the unilateral presentation of an otherwise typical hypnic headache. Case report. A 65-year-old woman had a 2-month history of a new-onset left-sided headache that awakened her from sleep. She had rare similar, more painful, right-sided headaches. Her nonradiating, throbbing headache pain was located over her eye and temporal areas, with an intensity of 5 to 10 out of 10 (on a scale from 0 to 10, 10 indicating the worst possible pain). The headache would awaken her after 3 to 6 hours of sleep and last for approximately 3 hours. Associated …