The aura symptoms may include:
- Seeing flashes of light, bright spots, different shapes, black dots, and wavy lines
- Visual hallucinations
- Tunnel vision
- Transient vision loss
- Tingling, numbness, weakness, heaviness that may involve a whole side of the body (face, arms, and legs)
- Difficult speaking and language disturbances
- Auditory and smell disturbances
The symptoms of aura start gradually over several minutes and last up to 60 minutes.
After or during the aura, the patient enters the stage of actual migraine headache. Migraine headache starts gradually, at one side of the head, and is dull-aching in nature. Then, the headache becomes pulsating (throbbing), more severe, and may involve the other side of the head. Migraine patients may have the following symptoms with the headache:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Sensitivity to light, sound, and odors
- Dizziness and fainting
- Nasal congestion