A migraine is not just a headache. For more than a billion people living with the neurological condition across the world, the throbbing pain can last for hours, even days, and can trigger nausea, vomiting, flashes of light, and blurred vision. More often than not, medicines offer little help. What if an unconventional method could ease the pain?
Wired magazine reported that some women are putting sex toys to their heads to ease migraines. This prompted Redditors to confess that they too “do this all the time”, with men often reaching for their partners’ vibrators on occasion. One Wired contributor reported that her friend Jack “suffers from the most terrible migraines” but “has an unusual solution”. “When his migraine starts, he lays down and gently straps a vibrator to the top of his forehead,” journalist Helen Thomson wrote. “He swears that it offers instant relief from the pain.”
While unusual, this method of pain relief isn’t so far-fetched. Past research suggests vibration can be a suitable therapy for migraines. A 2025 study published in the journal Neurology found that vibration therapy, or kinetic oscillation stimulation (KOS), once every week for six weeks could reduce monthly migraine episodes by more than three days. This could be a big relief as migraine disrupts day-to-day activities and the debilitating pain severely affects one’s mood.
KOS involves stimulating the nasal cavity for around 10-15 minutes per session. Wired reports that a 2016 pilot study — led by Swedish researchers Jan-Erik Juto and Rolf Hallin — had first used KOS, putting a catheter with a vibrating balloon into the nostril of migraine sufferers at the start of an attack. They had observed a 50% reduction in pain among all the participants, with half of them becoming completely pain free merely 15 minutes after the session.
Juto and Hallin had said this kind of vibration targets nerve cells under the nasal membrane (called sphenopalatine ganglion or SPG). SPG is linked to the hypothalamus, which gets premonitions of migraine but can’t control the pain. In fact, during this phase, hyperactivity in the hypothalamus can actually intensify the pain. Nasal vibrations stimulate SPG and by extension, the hypothalamus, to reduce the hyperactivity and bring about a fair amount of pain control.
KOS hasn’t been approved as a treatment for migraine yet. However, the US FDA has approved a sound vibration technique called non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) to effectively reduce migraine pain. Donovan Health, American musician Jim Donovan’s blog, mentions how non-invasive VNS uses a hand-held device to emit a particular sound frequency and stimulate the vagus nerve, the longest and most complex among the cranial nerves which helps regulate heart rate, breathing, digestion and motor functions. Donovan, who teaches music and wellness at Saint Francis University, Pennsylvania, writes that a 2020 meta-analysis had found this technique to render patients pain free within 30 minutes of beginning treatment, even reducing their number of headache days. The most common device to offer it is the hand-held gammaCore.
In India, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has rolled out a US FDA-approved wearable therapy device named Nerivio, which uses “Remote Electrical Neuromodulation to prevent and treat migraine”, the drugmaker said in a press release.
As for the DIY method, Adriana LaGier, a cell biologist at Grand View University, Iowa examined it at the cellular level and found that it does help alleviate pain. “The brain gets inflamed during a migraine attack, which triggers nerves to shoot off pain signals,” she told Wired. But vibrations make the cells smaller. They take up less space and cause less pressure on the meninges, removing the pain trigger. And all this, right at home. LaGier says it’s worth a try.
Agencies
Wired magazine reported that some women are putting sex toys to their heads to ease migraines. This prompted Redditors to confess that they too “do this all the time”, with men often reaching for their partners’ vibrators on occasion. One Wired contributor reported that her friend Jack “suffers from the most terrible migraines” but “has an unusual solution”. “When his migraine starts, he lays down and gently straps a vibrator to the top of his forehead,” journalist Helen Thomson wrote. “He swears that it offers instant relief from the pain.”
While unusual, this method of pain relief isn’t so far-fetched. Past research suggests vibration can be a suitable therapy for migraines. A 2025 study published in the journal Neurology found that vibration therapy, or kinetic oscillation stimulation (KOS), once every week for six weeks could reduce monthly migraine episodes by more than three days. This could be a big relief as migraine disrupts day-to-day activities and the debilitating pain severely affects one’s mood.
KOS involves stimulating the nasal cavity for around 10-15 minutes per session. Wired reports that a 2016 pilot study — led by Swedish researchers Jan-Erik Juto and Rolf Hallin — had first used KOS, putting a catheter with a vibrating balloon into the nostril of migraine sufferers at the start of an attack. They had observed a 50% reduction in pain among all the participants, with half of them becoming completely pain free merely 15 minutes after the session.
Juto and Hallin had said this kind of vibration targets nerve cells under the nasal membrane (called sphenopalatine ganglion or SPG). SPG is linked to the hypothalamus, which gets premonitions of migraine but can’t control the pain. In fact, during this phase, hyperactivity in the hypothalamus can actually intensify the pain. Nasal vibrations stimulate SPG and by extension, the hypothalamus, to reduce the hyperactivity and bring about a fair amount of pain control.
KOS hasn’t been approved as a treatment for migraine yet. However, the US FDA has approved a sound vibration technique called non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) to effectively reduce migraine pain. Donovan Health, American musician Jim Donovan’s blog, mentions how non-invasive VNS uses a hand-held device to emit a particular sound frequency and stimulate the vagus nerve, the longest and most complex among the cranial nerves which helps regulate heart rate, breathing, digestion and motor functions. Donovan, who teaches music and wellness at Saint Francis University, Pennsylvania, writes that a 2020 meta-analysis had found this technique to render patients pain free within 30 minutes of beginning treatment, even reducing their number of headache days. The most common device to offer it is the hand-held gammaCore.
In India, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has rolled out a US FDA-approved wearable therapy device named Nerivio, which uses “Remote Electrical Neuromodulation to prevent and treat migraine”, the drugmaker said in a press release.
As for the DIY method, Adriana LaGier, a cell biologist at Grand View University, Iowa examined it at the cellular level and found that it does help alleviate pain. “The brain gets inflamed during a migraine attack, which triggers nerves to shoot off pain signals,” she told Wired. But vibrations make the cells smaller. They take up less space and cause less pressure on the meninges, removing the pain trigger. And all this, right at home. LaGier says it’s worth a try.
Agencies
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