Sleep Disorder Linked to Headaches And Snoring

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Unk's Wild Wild West : One Thread

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010706/hl/sleep_headaches.html

Friday July 6 2:19 PM ET

Sleep Disorder Linked to Headaches And Snoring

By Alan Mozes

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For many, the pounding in the head that greets them each morning cannot be attributed to the bedside alarm clock, the 6 AM drilling in the street or a desperate need for a cup of joe.

Instead, researchers say that frequent morning headaches may be a sign of sleep apnea, a disorder in which obstruction of the airway disrupts nighttime sleep and causes daytime drowsiness.

``The headaches were highly predictive of sleep apnea--they really helped us identify the worst cases,'' said Dr. Jeanetta Rains, director of the Center for Sleep Evaluation at Elliot Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School, both in New Hampshire.

Rains and her colleagues studied headaches in 826 patients plagued by sleep difficulties, presenting their findings hear earlier this week at the 10th Congress of the International Headache Society.

Rains and her colleagues found that more than three quarters of the patients had a clinical sleeping disorder of one type or another. They further noted that 35% of the patients reported having headaches in the morning, with 19% saying the headaches occurred almost every day. Among this frequent morning headache group, 67% had sleep apnea.

At the conference, Rains and her team noted that 84% of the frequent headache group were snorers. Among patients who had frequent morning headaches and also snored, 81% had sleep apnea.

An additional study and survey out of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland presented at the same meeting found that people with chronic daily headaches were about 2.5 times more likely to snore than people who did not have such headaches. Overall, the researchers concluded that frequent morning headaches--particularly when paired with regular snoring--can be viewed as a sign of high risk for sleep apnea.

Rains told Reuters Health that sleep apnea literally means ''cessation of breathing during sleep. In most cases, there can be many short episodes of 10 to 30 seconds where the individual stops breathing during sleep,'' she said. ``When that happens, their blood oxygen levels tend to fall and usually that ends by a quick arousal where they resuscitate themselves or catch their breath. This can happen literally hundreds of times per night.''

Rains pointed out that while breathing is typically more irregular during sleep, sleep apnea is not normal. People with the condition, she noted, are at higher risk for stroke and heart attack. However, Rains stressed that effective treatments for sleep apnea are available, including sleeping on one's side or wearing a device to assist in breathing while asleep or to reposition the mouth to allow for more oxygen intake. In extreme cases, she said, surgical remedies may be necessary.

``Sleep apnea is very serious but very treatable,'' said Rains. ''The important thing is to speak to your regular physician--particularly if you're waking up with headaches and snore, and have some complaint about your sleep.''

-- (in@health.news), July 06, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ