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Sleep disorder-related headaches

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Abstract

Migraine with and without aura, cluster headache, hypnic headache, and paroxysmal hemicranias are each reported as intrinsically related to sleep. Chronic migraine, chronic tension-type headache, and medication overuse headache may cause sleep disturbance. Otherwise, both headache and sleep disorder may be manifestations of a same systemic dysfunction. There is a vicious cycle linking sleep disorders and migraine. The poor quality or poor duration of sleep could be a trigger of migraine attack and migraineurs with poor sleep reported a higher headache frequency. Moreover, coping behaviors of migraineurs (e.g., going to sleep early to relieve migraine attacks) can be factors precipitating and perpetuating sleep disturbances themselves. During cluster headache, patients report a poor quality of sleep correlated with the amount of daylight. In particular, it was demonstrated that melatonin levels have influences on cluster headache attacks. Concerning the pathophysiology of hypnic headache, it has been hypothesized a possible role of obstructive sleep apnea in triggering nocturnal attacks: an increased number of apnea episodes has been reported in hypnic headache patients, but a lack of a temporal correlation of headache attacks with the drop of oxygen saturation has been observed. Tension-type headache is the most common headache with sleep dysregulation (lack of sleep or oversleeping) frequently reported as a triggering factor for acute attacks: management of sleep disturbances seems crucial in this form of headache.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology-Sleep Disorders Centre, Milan, Italy

    Luigi Ferini-Strambi & Andrea Galbiati

  2. “Vita-Salute” San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

    Luigi Ferini-Strambi & Andrea Galbiati

  3. School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano – Bicocca, Monza, Italy

    Romina Combi

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  1. Luigi Ferini-Strambi
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  2. Andrea Galbiati
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Correspondence to Luigi Ferini-Strambi.

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Ferini-Strambi, L., Galbiati, A. & Combi, R. Sleep disorder-related headaches. Neurol Sci 40 (Suppl 1), 107–113 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-019-03837-z

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