The sleep habits and sleep disorders in children with headache.

OBJECTIVE

The study was conducted to examine the sleep habits and sleep disorders in children and adolescents with headache.

METHODS

Three hundred children with headache were qualified to a headache group (HG) and 284 children from schools and kindergartens without headache to a control group (CG).

RESULTS

In our study, 27.7% children of the HG slept together with other person in the bed; 18.7% of the CG. In the HG, 11.7% of children had physical contact with parents when falling asleep, in the CG 19.7%. In the HG, watching TV and listening to the radio when falling asleep occurred more frequently. About 20% of parents in the HG read aloud to children before putting them to sleep, in the CG 32.4%. Day naps occurred in 32.7% of the HG children and in 20.1% of the CG. Sleep disorders reported in the study group as parasomnia symptoms included: sleep talking 48.3% (CG 38.7%); bruxism 23.3% (CG 16.5%); leg movement 20.3% (CG 18.0%); nightmares 16.7% (CG 7.4%) and sleep breathing disorder symptoms like snoring 27.3% in the HG group (CG 19.0%) and breathing pauses 5.7% (CG 1.4%). Awakenings from the night sleep were observed in 43.7% children of the HG and in 36.4% children of the CG.

CONCLUSIONS

Sleep habits in children with headache were considerably different from sleep habits in the CG. The prevalence of sleep disorder symptoms like: snoring, sleep talking, bruxism, sleep terror, nightmares, breathing pauses and awaking from night sleep was higher in the HG group than in the CG.