THURSDAY, April 17 (HealthDay News) -- Children with migraine
headaches are more likely to have sleep disorders, such as sleep
apnea and lack of sleep, than children with non-migraine headaches,
new research shows.
"Sleeping problems can exacerbate the problems migraine causes
on a child's health and may hinder a child's performance at
school," study author Dr. Martina Vendrame of Temple University in
Philadelphia, said in a prepared statement. "Parents and doctors
need to be aware of the strong likelihood of sleep disorders in
children with migraine and seek appropriate preventions and
treatments."
The study, expected to be presented Thursday at the American
Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Chicago, looked at 90
children with headache and sleep problems. Of these children, 60
had migraine, 11 had chronic daily headache, six had tension
headache and 13 had non-specific headache. They were studied using
a polysomnogram, a sleep test that monitors the brain, eye
movements, muscle activity, heart rhythm and breathing.
The children with migraines were almost twice as likely as the
others to have sleep apnea, a condition in which the upper airway
gets obstructed and causes repeated arousals from sleep. Such
sleep-disordered breathing was found in 56 percent of children with
migraine versus 30 percent of children with non-migraine
headache.
Severe migraine was also associated with shorter total sleep
time, longer total time to fall asleep, and shorter REM sleep,
which is the stage of sleep in which most dreams can be
recalled.
Sleep-disordered breathing was also frequent in the studied
children with non-specific headache and those who were
overweight.
Half of children with tension headache grind their teeth at
night compared to 2.4 percent of children with non-tension
headache, the study found.
More information
The National Headache Foundation has more about
migraines.
