The clinical significance of insomnia in chronic headache

Abstract

To study the features of the manifestation of insomnia and its impact on the condition and quality of life in patients with chronic tension-type headache. The study included 65 patients with chronic tension-type headache and insomnia. Patients filled out questionnaires on headache severity, sleep quality, emotional status and quality of life. Seventeen patients underwent polysomnography. Patients with more severe insomnia had significantly more severe anxiety (p<0.001) and depression (p=0.025). Such patients assessed their quality of life worse according to the SF-12 questionnaire (p<0.002) and the Subjective Well-Being Scale (p<0.001), a higher level of central sensitization was observed in patients with more severe insomnia (p<0.001). The negative impact of insomnia on the condition of patients is not so much an increase in pain as such, but rather its influence on the quality of the emotional state and life in general, as well as an increase in the interdependence and mutual influence of other clinical and psychophysiological manifestations of the disease. Therefore, the clinical significance of insomnia is the deterioration of a person's ability to tolerate pain, which is the main prerequisite for a decrease in quality of life.