Are sleep disorders more common in children with migraine?

Migraine is associated with an increased risk of sleep disturbances in children, according to findings presented at the Academy of Neurology's 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago.

The investigators studied 90 children with headache and sleep problems. Sixty of these participants had migraine, 11 had chronic daily headache, six had tension headache, and 13 had non-specific headache. Results showed that 56% of children with migraine had sleep apnea, compared with 30% of children with non-migraine headache.

In addition, severe migraine was linked to shorter total sleep time, longer total time to fall asleep, and shorter REM sleep. Sleep apnea was also frequent in children with non-specific headache and in children who were overweight.

Nighttime teeth-grinding was present in 50% of children with tension headache, compared with 2.4% of children with non-tension headache, the findings also revealed.