Common Migraine Triggers

Some migraine triggers you can see coming a mile away. Naming them is oddly powerful — you can't dodge what you can't see. So let's round up the usual suspects, the ones most of us with migraine disorder learn to recognize first.

Quick note: I'm a lifelong migraine sufferer and a mitpachat designer, not a doctor. This is lived experience and general info — for anything medical, please talk to your neurologist.

The classic culprits

• Stress — and, cruelly, the let-down right after it. Many of us get the migraine once the deadline is finally over.

• Sleep, in both directions — too little, too much, or just irregular. Your brain likes a schedule (lol, I have kids, so this one is aspirational).

• Skipped meals — low blood sugar is one of the most common, most fixable triggers going.

• Alcohol — especially red wine. (The nice stuff is sometimes kinder than the cheap stuff, but your mileage will vary.)

• Bright light, loud sound, strong smells — sensory overload is baked into migraine. Strobe lights and concerts were an early goodbye for me.

• Caffeine — too much, or the withdrawal when you skip your usual. It cuts both ways.

• Hormonal shifts — for many women, the menstrual cycle is a reliable, unwelcome clock.

• Weather changes — pressure drops and storms are a real thing, not you being dramatic.

• Certain foods — the tyramine crowd (aged cheese, cured meats) and surprise ingredients. That's a whole post of its own.

  
  

Here's the important part I keep reminding myself and you: not every trigger is your trigger. Migraine is individual. The most useful thing you can do is keep a simple diary — what you ate, slept, felt, and did before an attack — and let your own patterns show themselves over a few weeks.

The trigger you can actually control today

Here's one that hides in plain sight: tension on your head. A tight ponytail, heavy earrings, or a head covering knotted tight all press on your scalp, and for migraine-prone heads, that pressure can be a trigger. That one you can change today — which is the entire reason the Sprkly is wire-shaped and tension-free instead of tied on tight. It won't fix the pain of your Migraine attack, but it can help.

When your head doesn't hurt, you can think better.