Children with headaches have problems sleeping

Jan 30 2006

According to researchers at the Mayo Clinic children who have frequent headaches often also have sleep problems.

Kenneth Mack, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric neurologist specializing in headache carried out a study on children who suffer from chronic daily headaches.

In the study of the children, aged 6 to 17, 100 suffered from headaches for 15 or more days a month for three months or more; and 100 children in the same age category suffered with episodic headache, headache that occurs with less frequency than chronic daily headache.

The researchers found that more than two-thirds of the children studied who suffer from chronic daily headache also experienced sleep disturbance, especially in initially going to sleep.

In the children with episodic headaches, one-fifth were found to have sleep problems.

Dr Mack, the senior study investigator says they were surprised by the number of patients who had headaches and also had sleep disturbance and that they had the same sleep disturbance: a delay in sleep onset.

The researchers had noticed that the children with headaches were poor sleepers and tired because they had poor sleep, but had not appreciated the frequency of sleep disturbance with chronic daily headache.

As well as problems in going to sleep it was found that the children studied awoke during the night or too early in the morning, or did not feel refreshed after sleep.

The investigators say it is unclear which comes first the sleep problems or the headaches, but it is evident the two things feed off each other.

Dr. Mack suggests that treatment needs to be simultaneous for both conditions, using medicine and non-medicine approaches.

According to Lenora Lehwald, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurology expert and a study investigator, essential non-medication treatments would include adhering to a regular bedtime routine and developing good sleep hygiene.

That may mean the child using the bedroom for just relaxing, and excluding television sets, video games and any exciting activity from the bedroom.

It is also important that children have a calming routine in preparation for sleep, such as reading.

Dr. Mack suggests that should a child with both headache and sleep problems require medicine, migraine medication might be the best option.

According to Dr. Mack, teenagers have the highest level of risk, possibly due to a higher stress level for teens than for younger children.

The researchers say that the average teen needs about 9.5 hours of sleep per night, more than most get, and factors such as family history, time of year and stress level also appear to affect the risk of headaches.

The findings will be presented this week at the 24th Annual Conference on Sleep Disorders in Infancy and Childhood in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

http://www.mayoclinic.org