Don’t let tension headaches lead to insomnia
February 16, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
It seems like a good idea – sleep off your headache if you can get to sleep. But doing this regularly could end up causing a second problem: insomnia.
Researchers at Rush University did a small study of 65 women, 32 who had tension-type headaches and 33 who didn’t. The majority of women in the headache group (over 80%) said they found sleeping off a headache was an effective management tool. However, almost 60% of the women with headaches also reported having regular sleep problems of either having difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep. In the group of women who didn’t have these headaches, only 18% had problems sleeping.
Since poor sleep has been linked in the past with an increase in headaches, the researchers are confirming the cycle of lack of sleep leads to headaches that leads to more lack of sleep in many cases.
You can read more about the study in Study Finds Behavorial Link Between Insomnia and Tension-Type Headaches.
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Tags: pain blog, tension headaches, poor sleep, insomnia, tension type headaches
