The following is a summary of “Association Between Electronic Diary–Rated Sleep, Mood, Energy, and Stress With Incident Headache in a Community-Based Sample,” published in the January 2024 issue of Neurology by Lateef et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to explore how daily fluctuations in mood, sleep, energy, and stress predict the onset of headaches within a community sample.
They conducted an observational study, assessing headache syndromes and mental disorders and utilizing electronic diaries for 4,974 assessments over two weeks. The study focused on the morning (am) and later-day (pm) headaches, employing generalized linear mixed-effects models to analyze subjective mood, anxiety, energy, stress, sleep quality, and objectively measured sleep duration and efficiency.
The results showed 477 participants (61% female) aged 7 to 84. Adjusting for demographic, clinical covariates, and emotional states, incident (am) headache correlated with a lower average (ß = −0.206*; CI: −0.397 to −0.017) and reduced sleep quality on the prior day (ß = −0.172*; CI: −0.305, −0.039). Average stress and changes in subjective energy levels on the preceding day showed associations with incident headaches, with differing valence for am (decrease) (ß = −0.145* CI: −0.286, −0.005) and pm (increase) (ß = 0.157*; CI: 0.032, 0.281) headache. Mood and anxiety disorders were not significantly linked to incident headache, controlling for a migraine diagnosis history.
They concluded that sleep, energy, and stress fluctuations predicted headache timing, highlighting circadian rhythms’ role and potential for monitoring to improve prevention and intervention.
Source: neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000208102
