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Awicher...hiya and welcome...you're in the right place....and aint no such thing as a "rant" in clusterville...we all been there When episodic and in cycle I used to get BLASTED at night...8 times...once per hour..so I may have compensated by becoming a light sleeper. Anyway, I would set up my O2 buddy right next to me...turn the dial to 0 and crank the valve open. The instant I was awakened I would slam the mask on (non rebreather purchased from ch.com...my FAVORITE possession!) and turn the dial up all the way (easier than trying to find the valve handle and fumbling in the dark). For some reason...also I know not why...these hits were more subject to successful O2 abort than day time hits (perhaps learning to wake before the hit got too bad, dunno).....5 mins or so and I could go back to sleep. Ya gotta work the mental aspect too. YMMV...this is what worked for me: Early on I used to get all agitated... screaming, thrashing, cursing, pacing, sweating, ADRENALINE by the bucket full. Learned the HARD way this was getting me NOWHERE...for any hit at ANY time...life got a whole better after I figured that out. Next I realized besides remaining calm I needed to remain "not fully awake" which allowed me to go back to sleep nearly immediately. Left the lights off, kept my eyes closed, stayed on the edge of the bed with minimal movement, and most importantly concentrated on BREATHING only...no thoughts of anything else....'breath in-breath out" rinse and repeat.... Finally....the next morning...on the way to work....rather than cursing the bad luck of constantly interrupted sleep....I rejoiced that "HEY...I got 6 hours last night" (which was WAY better than before)......it got to be a game that me and the beast played. Attitude...it's all in the attitude... CH as well as life................ Best Jon

Awitcher, Great question and the short answer is Yes. Oxygen therapy, if properly administered can stop a CH hitting while sleeping all the way up to a Kip-9 on the 10-Point Headache Pain Scale. Once a CH has risen to a Kip-10, we're all along for some heavy sledding as very little works to abort CH at this pain level. You need to understand that oxygen therapy, even administered properly, is still just an abortive and not a preventative... That means your next regularly scheduled CH attack will hit anyway. This can be frustrating until you realize when used properly, oxygen therapy can abort a CH in an average of 7 minutes... When you consider left untreated, a CH can last 30 to 90 minutes... That makes avoiding 23 to 83 minutes of needless CH pain a very good deal... The better solution is to see your PCP for the 25(OH)D lab test. 25(OH)D is the first metabolite of vitamin D3 that's used to measure its status. It turns out that CHers with active bouts of CH are vitamin D3 deficient or insufficient, a serum 25(OH)D concentration less than 30 ng/mL... As CHers, we need to keep our 25(OH)D serum concentration up around 80 ng/mL in order to keep us CH pain free or significantly reduce the frequency, severity and duration of our CH. The following chart illustrates the normal distribution curve of baseline 25(OH)D lab results taken before start of the anti-inflammatory regimen with 10,000 IU/day vitamin D3. You can download a pdf copy of the anti-inflammatory regimen CH preventative treatment protocol at the following link. Henry Lahore posted this treatment protocol for me on 21 January, 2017. As of this morning, readers at the VitaminDWiki website have downloaded 3295 copies of this treatment protocol http://www.vitamindwiki.com/tiki-download_wiki_attachment.php?attId=7708 Take care and please keep us posted. V/R, Batch

I would say yes. Not as quickly of course. Try an Energy Shot, cold, and slam it down on your way to the O2. You can hyperventilate on the way - force out the CO2 with major exhale and add a crunch. Like doing a breathing test if you have ever had one. I'm nocturnal as well. I wake up, with that 'What?' feeling. Then it starts to ramp and I head out for the caffeine and O2. Takes oh about 15 seconds to decide!!! And I have not had my O2 fail me yet. Take longer? Yes.

It is very common for CH cycles and frequency to change. I have changed from chronic to episodic more than once, cycle length has changed many times. I'm chronic now and find it almost easier! My attacks seem easier to abort when chronic. Also, I can have a cocktail with no effect. When episodic that is not possible. Oxygen is my #1 abortive, I stop up to 97% of my hits with O2 only. Used it this morning. They posts above are giving you good information. Anything we use to stop an attack must be used as quick as possible. Waiting to see if it's a bad one can result in failure to abort . The fight is our own so we have to take charge of our own treatment.