Headache and sleep

Abstract

Headache and sleep share some clinical and physiological features. In ancient times good sleep was regarded as a cure for headache. The neuroanatomical links between the two conditions is the hypothalamus and one of the physiological links is the orexin metabolism. In the clinical setting, there are headache disorders predominantly occurring during sleep, such as cluster headache, or often occur in the early morning, such as migraine attacks. On the other side, sleep disorders can trigger headache such as sleep apnoea syndrome or bruxism. Recently, a significant association has been described between migraine and restless legs syndrome. Drugs used in headache and migraine treatment can lead to sleep disturbances such as vivid dreams caused by betablockers or hypersomnia caused by tricyclic antidepressants. A specific condition is hypnic headache, which exclusively occurs during the sleep.