PainRelief.com Interview with:

Dawn C. Buse PhD
Clinical Professor of Neurology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York City

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: Sleep is essential in the regulation of a wide range of homeostatic functions.  Dysregulation of sleep process may be triggers for migraine attacks and increase the risk of migraine disease chronification.  Migraine is comorbid with a range of medical, neurologic, and psychiatric comorbidities that may exacerbate the disease, complicate treatment, and reduce health-related quality of life.  These comorbidities include sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, circadian rhythm (i.e., sleep-wake) disorders, and sleep movement disorders.

The Chronic Migraine Epidemiology and Outcomes (CaMEO) Study is a longitudinal study that used a series of web-based surveys over 15 months to assess migraine symptoms, burden and patterns of healthcare utilization among people in the US population.  Validated questionnaires were used to assess many comorbidities.  Migraine can be classified based on the number of headache days per month into episodic migraine (<15 headache days/month) and chronic migraine (≥15 headache days/month).

In this cross-sectional analysis of data from the Chronic Migraine Epidemiology and Outcomes (CaMEO) Study, we assessed sleep apnea and poor sleep quality in a US population based sample of 12,810 people with migraine.  Respondents were stratified by episodic (11,699) and chronic (1,111) migraine and by body mass index (BMI).