The 98 participants included in the analyses reflected the known migraine prevalence. “They were generally younger women with an average age of 35, and generally a healthy population,” Dr. Bertisch said. “About one-third reported a history of migraine with aura, and about one-quarter used daily medications to prevent migraines. About 60% reported that sleeping too little triggered their migraines.”
The researchers collected data by actigraphy and diary during approximately 4,500 nights and found that their cohort’s sleep was relatively healthy. “They slept over seven hours per night, they had few sleep problems, they had high sleep efficiency, and they had modest alcohol or caffeine consumption during the study,” Dr. Bertisch said.
In an analysis of diary data, there was no association between odds of a next-day headache and sleep duration, wake after sleep onset (WASO), sleep efficiency, or sleep quality. “However, when we looked at the actigraphy measures, we did find associations with lower sleep efficiency and higher WASO, each associated with lower risk of next-day headache,” Dr. Bertisch said.
“When we looked at odds of headache two days later, we did find that a low sleep efficiency based on self-report was associated with a higher risk of migraine. We also noted a similar trend with self-reported short sleep duration. For actigraphy data, we found a somewhat similar pattern. We also found that sleep duration greater than 8.5 hours was associated with lower risk of migraine two days later.”
In summary, sleep efficiency and high WASO may be associated with lower odds of next-day headache. For sleep two nights before the headache, low sleep efficiency was associated with higher odds of headache. Long sleep duration, as assessed by actigraphy, was associated with lower odds of headache two days later.
—Glenn S. Williams