Sleep hygiene and migraine in children and adolescents

Although sleep problems are a common complaint in migraine patients, the role of sleep habits and hygiene as triggering factors of head pain attacks has been poorly analyzed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of modifying bad sleep habits across several headache parameters. Based on our previous study, we selected 70/164 migraineurs (42.7%) with poor sleep hygiene and randomly assigned them to two groups: group A migraineurs, who were instructed to follow directions to improve sleep hygiene; and group B migraineurs who were not given instructions on improving sleep hygiene. Mean duration and frequency of migraine attacks were significantly reduced at follow-up in group A, while group B showed only an insignificant initial reduction. No differences were found in the severity of migraine attacks that seemed related to a higher prevalence of nocturnal symptoms such as bedtime struggles, hypnic jerks, nightmares, and restless sleep. Our study is an alternative approach to the treatment of migraine, i.e. treatment through a simple modification of sleep behavior without recurring to pharmacological treatment.