Cluster headache and light sensitivity

Light sensitivity, also called photophobia, means that ordinary indoor or outdoor light feels uncomfortable during an attack. It can occur alongside severe pain around the eye, forehead or temple. Watery or red eyes, a blocked or runny nostril, eyelid swelling, or restlessness on the same side can help a clinician recognise a cluster-headache pattern. Light sensitivity alone does not identify the cause; migraine, eye inflammation and other conditions can also produce it.

Notice whether brightness starts before the pain, rises with it, or remains after the attack. Record the affected side, eye symptoms, duration and any triggers. This detail helps separate cluster headache from other kinds of headache and eye problem.

Move to a comfortably dim room if light worsens the pain, while avoiding complete darkness if it makes you feel disoriented. Keep regular sleep and meal patterns, and avoid alcohol if it has triggered attacks before. Do not place unprescribed drops in a painful or red eye. A clinician can discuss fast-acting attack treatment and a plan to reduce further episodes; ordinary painkillers may not act quickly enough for cluster headache.

Seek urgent medical help for a sudden, explosive headache, new weakness or numbness, confusion, fainting, seizure, fever with a stiff neck, or sudden loss of vision. A painful red eye with blurred vision, halos or vomiting also needs prompt assessment. Arrange a clinical review when this is a new headache pattern, attacks are recurring, or light sensitivity is persistent between episodes.

Could the timing of my light sensitivity fit cluster headache or migraine? What eye symptoms should prompt same-day assessment? Which treatment should I use at the first sign of an attack? Should I keep a headache diary, and what details matter most?