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How long do migraines last?

By the formal diagnostic definition, the headache phase of an untreated migraine attack lasts 4 to 72 hours in adults. The full episode is usually longer: warning signs can begin a day or two before the pain, and a foggy "hangover" phase can trail a day or two after it.

Updated September 9, 2026 · 6 min read

Where the 4–72 hour figure comes from

The number isn't folklore — it's a diagnostic criterion. The International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3) defines migraine without aura partly by attacks "lasting 4–72 hours (untreated or unsuccessfully treated)." That range is one of the features clinicians use to distinguish migraine from other headache types: tension-type headaches can last from half an hour to a week but lack migraine's accompanying features, while cluster headache attacks are far shorter — minutes to about three hours — and behave very differently. Duration, in other words, is diagnostic information, which is one reason it's worth recording rather than guessing.

Within that wide range, most people have a personal "usual": some reliably lose an afternoon, others reliably lose two days. In children, attacks are often shorter. Successful early treatment can cut an attack far below its untreated length — which is precisely why the definition specifies untreated.

The four phases — and why attacks feel longer than the headache

• Prodrome (hours to ~48 hours before). Subtle warnings: yawning, food cravings, mood shifts, stiff neck, unusual tiredness or bursts of energy. Not everyone gets it, and many who do only recognize it in hindsight — or through a diary.
• Aura (5–60 minutes, about a quarter of patients). Reversible neurological symptoms, most often visual — shimmering zigzags, blind spots — sometimes tingling or speech difficulty, usually just before or alongside the early headache. More in our guide to migraine aura.
• Headache phase (4–72 hours). The attack proper: often one-sided, throbbing pain, worsened by movement, with nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.
• Postdrome (up to ~48 hours after). The "migraine hangover" — drained, foggy, tender-headed. Research suggests most patients experience some postdrome, and it's a real part of the attack's cost even though the pain has stopped.

Add the phases up and a "one-day migraine" can genuinely occupy three or four days of your week — worth remembering when you count what migraine actually takes from you.

Why tracking duration is worth the bother

Duration is one of the most useful — and worst-remembered — numbers in a migraine history:

• It anchors diagnosis. The 4–72 hour window, attack by attack, is part of what confirms migraine and separates it from tension-type and cluster patterns.
• It measures treatment honestly. A preventive that turns 48-hour attacks into 12-hour ones is working, even if the attack count hasn't budged. Without recorded durations, that improvement is invisible.
• It exposes your true burden. "Four attacks a month" sounds moderate until the diary shows they average 60 hours each. Clinicians weigh that difference.
• It flags drift. Attacks stretching longer over months — or blurring into one another — is a pattern to bring to a doctor, and one that's almost impossible to notice without records.

The practical difficulty is that nobody stares at a clock mid-attack. This is where a diary that timestamps for you earns its keep: in Dim, you log the start in three taps when the attack begins, close the entry when it ends, and the duration math — per attack and on average — happens on its own, alongside auto-captured weather, pressure, and sleep. Months later, "how long do your attacks last?" has an answer with a decimal point.