Migraine patients need increased amounts of sleep during attacks to maintain neurological functioning

Introduction There is a clear, but unexplained association between migraine and sleep. Migraine patients frequently describe increased sleep need during migraine attacks, and that sleep can ease the attack. In this study we investigated the effect of insufficient sleep in migraine, in order to explain why migraine patients have increased need for sleep during attacks. Methods Fifty-four migraine patients were examined both after two nights of eight-hour habitual sleep and two nights of four-hour restricted sleep. We recorded short interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), intracortical facilitation (ICF), and beta event related desynchronisation (beta-ERD) and synchronisation (beta-ERS). The effect of sleep condition and time after attack end or postictal versus interictal phase were evaluated in linear mixed models. Results SICI (p = 0.041) and beta-ERS (p