Iranian Journal of Child Neurology

Abstract

Objective
Headaches are common during childhood. In addition, sleep disorders are common problems in children, too. Although it is commonly thought that
headache and sleep problems are related, there is not enough evidence to confirm this relationship. Finding evident relations between these problems
would help practitioners a lot to make earlier diagnosis and plan treatment modalities for both problems as soon as possible. This study aimed to assess the relative frequency of sleep disorders in migraine and non migraine children.
Material & Methods
In a cross sectional study, 148 children were enrolled in migraine (60) and non migraine (88) groups. They were aged 6 to 14 years. Migraine group consisted
of patients who had definite migraine according to IHS (International Headache Society) criteria. Ten sleep problems (snoring, nightmares, sleep walking, sleep
talking, bedtime struggle, bruxism, sweating during sleep, excessive daytime sleepiness, insomnia in early or mid night and sleep apnea) were compared
between 2 groups. Fisher exact and chi square tests were used for making comparisons.
Results
We found relationships between night sleep and daytime headaches. Some of these relationships were easy to explain but for some others, finding complicated explanations are necessary.
Our findings showed that bruxism, sleep walking, early and midnight insomnia was significantly higher in migraine children. There was a common etiology for
headache and sleep disorders. Also, parents and migraine children were well familiar with the effect of relaxation on decreasing migraine episodes .They
provided appropriate facilities for night sleep for this reason.
Conclusion
we found relationships between night sleep and daytime headaches. Some of these relationships were easy to explain but for some others, finding complicated explanations are necessary.