The second you feel an attack coming on, it does fuck all for me if the migraine is already "peaking". Since i get migraines with aura it's very easy for me to tell when i have to take a pill, as soon as i notice the vision in my left eye dimming and the lightspots/bars appear i take the triptan and after about 30 minutes i am good again, vision is back to normal and i only have a very mild headache instead of the full-blown "I want to kill myself now, preferably in a very dark room" migraine headache. I used to take sumatriptan when i was still seeing a neurologist regularly, it worked equally as well but is prescription only here.
Edit to add: I only get migraines once in a blue moon these days, last year i had maybe three total. I am convinced it is lasting damage from taking psychiatric medication for a prolonged amount of time when i was younger.
Just found a cool picture on Wikipedia that illustrates the migraine aura i get, sans the lightspots/bars of light:
View attachment 8469030
I have to take the Naratriptan when my vision starts to look like the upper picture if i want it to work. If i don't take it at that stage it slowly progresses to the state of the lower picture, over the course of half an hour to an hour. Then my vision slowly comes back and the pain starts, hard.