Frequent headaches in children appear linked
with sleep problems, although researchers aren't sure
which comes first.
A team from the Mayo Clinic studied data from 100 children,
aged 6 to 17, with chronic daily headache (headache present
15 or more days a month for three months or more) and
100 children the same age with episodic headache, which
occurs less frequently than chronic daily headache.
Reporting this week at the Annual Conference on Sleep
Disorders in Infancy and Childhood, they found that more
than two-thirds of the children with chronic daily headache
also experienced sleep disturbances, especially delay
in sleep onset.
Other sleep problems included awakening during the night
or too early in the morning, or not feeling refreshed
after sleep.
"What's novel in our study is the finding that a
high percentage of patients with headache have sleep disturbance,"
senior study investigator Dr. Kenneth Mack, a pediatric
neurologist who specializes in headache, said in a prepared
statement.
"The number of patients who have headaches and also
sleep disturbance surprised us. They also have the same
sleep disturbance: a delay in sleep onset," Mack
said.
It's not clear which problem comes first, sleep problems
or headache, because the sequence varies among children.
"They feed on each other: sleep problems make the
headaches worse, and the headaches make the sleep problems
worse. Also, the worse the headaches, the more likely
children are to have sleep problems, and vice versa. They
could have a common cause, or one problem could be an
early sign of the other," Mack said.
Simultaneous treatment is required for both conditions.
"It's going to be hard to control the headaches
till you get the sleep problems under control either with
medication or non-medication treatment," Mack said.
Examples of non-medication treatment include developing
good sleep habits and maintaining a regular pre-sleep
routine for the child.
