For the first time, researchers have studied what happens in the minds of those who have migraine when they have not slept enough.

Migraine is characterized by headache, photophobia, vomiting, nausea and increased sensitivity to sound. The disease affects about fifteen percent of the Norwegian population, which is almost similar to the global phenomenon.

Migraine is a major cause of disability in people between the ages of 16 and 50 years.

When it comes to school, higher education and career, these are important years in someone’s life. Migraine is a major burden for both personal and society. Many people struggling with migraine are far from work. This is a very common disorder that we need to understand better so that better treatment can be provided. ,

Petar Mo Omland in Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Medical Doctor and PostDorle Fellow

Migraine is still a mystery

Now he and a research team have discovered a new piece of puzzle about the brain of migraine.

Says Omland, “It is well known that sleep can relieve migraine headache, migraine attacks can begin or after sleep, and many migraine with migraine say disturbed sleep trigger attacks,” says Omland.

Migraine patients have also reduced sleep quality, more day -to -day fatigue and more sleep disturbances than people without headache. In addition, insomnia is associated with the increasing risk of migraine development.

Many people who have migraine feel that they have been touched as painful during attacks and increased sensitivity to light, smell and touch between attacks.

“Now we know more about the link between pain and sleep,” Omland said.

The study was highlighted CephalalgiaTo contribute valuable insight to an understanding of a medical journal, headache and treatment.

Sleeped sleep

Testing subjects have greatly sacrificed to help researchers find new answers. During two studies, 140 people sacrificed sleep and belonged to their brain. Nervous system Studied and measured.

The examinations are quick and safe measures in the brain. In the latest publication from these studies, subjects were subjected to pain for researchers in NTNU to have more knowledge about the relationship between sleep and migraine.

In the study, participants were divided into two groups, a group that had migraine, and the second group of healthy control subjects. The study was blinded, which means that researchers did not know which groups belonged to.

Participants were examined twice in different days. After two nights of normal sleep, and after two nights of low sleep, everyone was examined. All participants also had to keep a sleep diary, as well as to use an electronic meter that was logged.

During the actual examination, the participants wore a hat with the EEG electrode. EEG electrodes were used to measure activity in the brain during two types of pain stimulation, with a laser and with an electrical stimulation.

In this way, researchers were able to measure activity in the brain and check how the brain handled the pain signals after a little sleep.

Found migraine himself

Omland says, “None of it was dangerous, but it was clearly uncomfortable. People with migraine are voluntarily incredibly good because they want more knowledge about the disease.”

The study suggests that the cerebral cortex in people with migraine reacts differently to pain compared to others when migraine victims did not get enough sleep. In another recent study, researchers showed that sleep deficiency affects the system in the brain that slows down the activation of nerve cells in those who have migraine.

These systems can be these systems that causes the brain to process pain and other sensory impressions in a different way compared to migraine, which do not achieve these headaches.

Omland says, “Tantra that is considered to reduce pain does not work as those who do not have migraine. Pain is not reduced as much in healthy people,” says Omland.

Omland himself did not have migraine when he began to study them, but developed them for a period.

“I had young children, worked as a doctor and also a researcher. After a long period when I slept very little, I started waking up in the middle of the night with serious migraine attacks. It was very troublesome. My brain could not clearly sleep for a long time. This fact that I became an additional inspiration to understand these headaches.”