I've never timed mine. The first two lightening bolts were very brief. The third one wasn't brief but the pain was so overwhelming and consuming that I had enough time to walk to the freezer and get a block of ice out and place it on my lower jaw and wait for the pain to subside, so this episode was at least a couple of minutes, judging by my actions. These were the first classical symptoms I experienced. Prior to these, I experienced a lot of atypical type of pain which would go on for weeks and then months at a time without a break. The atypical pain I have still goes on for extended periods of time. I may get some very short breaks from it, but they are usually a couple of hours, not days and weeks. Also, my early experiences with the condition, I wasn't diagnosed and wasn't on meds. Now I am, but daily pain is a part of my life now and has been for quite some time. The meds do dull the pain, but I experience a lot of breakthrough pain and really don't pay much attention to how long it lasts. I do experience some of the lightening bolts which occur one after another. The last cycle of those was eight in a row to my upper left K9 tooth.