Question regarding Excedrin migraine and Excedrin tension headache medicine

So the Excedrin migraine has 50 mg of caffeine and 250 mg of aspirin. The Excedrin tension headache medicine has 500 mg of acetaminophen and 65 mg of caffeine.

My question is, because of the amount of caffeine in the medication, is there a good time in the day when you might not want to take the medicine because it could potentially keep you awake for longer, or does the caffeine in the medication not affect you like other caffeine from say, beverages?

Typically, I will take two Excedrin migraine at a time which is the maximum allowed limit in a 24-hour period. Since the Excedrin tension headache medicine dosages are a lot higher I was thinking about just taking one, but I wanted to get other people's opinions about it.

Thanks

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OogieBoogie · F

Its not that greater difference.

1tsp of instant coffee can contain (on average), 60 mg of caffine.
So an extra 15mg isn't much (unless youre highly sensitive to caffine)

Ive seen reccomendations of not having coffee after midday ...some recommend after 3pm .

But everyone is different.
Some can have a coffee before bed and sleep fine, some it can take over 12 hours for it to get out of their system 🤷

Again - its about how sensitive you are to it

Personally - if i had a migraine - i wouldn't care if i slept or not. Id want rid of the pain .

twiigss · M

@OogieBoogie Typically I get tension headaches and the amount of pain they cause always fluctuates. I could wake up fine and then 8:33am for no reason my neurologist can find, I'll just start getting a headache. Sometimes, the pain is a 3, other times, pain goes from a 3 and gradually turns into a 6.

There's been times where I've woken up with the most intense tension headache pain, at least an 8, and have taken the Excedrin migraine right when I wake up.

I didn't think however that I've taken that medicine after say 11am, but the pain level last night was probably a 2, it resolved itself.

OogieBoogie · F

@twiigss how long have you been getting them ?

twiigss · M

@OogieBoogie hmm. Well before my seizures I don't really remember getting them so much. I've told my neurologist about them. We thought maybe it's related to teeth clenching/grinding but I don't do it that often anymore because of how my upper denture is.

He did a MRI of my head and found absolutely zero issues. He said, sinuses were clear and no reason I should be having headaches like how I'm having them.

As I was writing this, I'm getting headache pain starting as usual at front of forehead.

OogieBoogie · F

@twiigss Have you ever kept a health diary ?
It's where you jot down what you eat, drink, how you feel, medications, symptoms and anything like stess, sleep (good or bad) etc.

It can help you see if there are any patterns or possible triggers .

Everything is connected.
It could be something as simple as a bad pillow, to something like inflamation, dehydration, stess, a food trigger, sleeping position, posture issues....or of course deeper issues.

Its a good way to start eliminatimg possible causes.🤷

twiigss · M

@OogieBoogie that's true. The farthest I got was thinking about keeping a log of how often I pee in a day. I hear anything more than 7 times and you have issues.

There's times when I can go on the dot every 2 hours, then there's times I can go 4 or 5 hours in between before having to go again. There's times when I go to bed, I'll sleep the whole way through, there's times when I might go once, then there's times when I'm up every 2 hours to pee. And yet my fluid intake is usually always the same every night.

OogieBoogie · F

@twiigss well this is where a diary like this comes in handy.
Your headaches could be linked .
Maybe it had something to do with your bladder ....ot kidneys ....or blood pressure....or diabetes. Anything 🤷

Like i said, everything is connected .
If sone symptom is becoming regular, tjen there's a cause.
Itd be good to work out what it is.