CHICAGO, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Sleeping to cope with chronic pain caused by tension-type headaches could lead to chronic sleeplessness, U.S. researchers say.
Researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago compared a group of 32 women confirmed to have tension-type headaches, as classified by the International Headache Society System, to a control group of 33 women who experienced minimal pain.
Eighty-one percent of the women in the headache group reported going to sleep as a way of managing their headaches; this method also was rated as the most effective self-management strategy for pain.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, found that napping to relieve headache pain could serve as a behavioral link between headache and sleep disturbance.
"Insomnia is a common complaint among headache sufferers," lead author Jason C. Ong said in a statement. "While napping may relieve pain, it may also decrease the brain's need for sleep at night, leading to reduced ability to initiate and maintain sleep at night."
The study found 58 percent of those with tension-type headaches reported sleep problems as a trigger of headaches compared to 18 percent of those who only suffer minimal headache pain.
