Pain that wakes you up
Patients often describe the start of the gout attack in the middle of the night, as a very severe joint pain that wakes you up and would not let you get back to sleep. This pain usually starts severe enough to wake you up and then continues to escalate until it becomes unbearable. It remains like this for a few hours and resolves spontaneously. Thus, waking up with severe pain in your big toe might be a sign that you have gout, but don’t take it for granted and ask your physician. You might need additional tests to make sure it’s not something else.