Medication for migraine and sleep

Migraine episodes are a type of headache that can affect your ability to do daily tasks, such as exercise or get a good amount of sleep.

Various medications are available to help manage migraine symptoms and prevent episodes. Many of these medications also help people who have difficulty sleeping due to migraine.  

Migraine medications and sleep

Usually, people who experience migraine have difficulty sleeping due to pain and discomfort.

Fortunately, several medications for preventing migraine may also help you sleep easier. Antidepressants are the main type of medication that can help with this. Other than depression, antidepressants can help other conditions, including:

• anxiety
• chronic pain
• hot flushes
• disordered eating
• insomnia

According to research, amitriptyline is an antidepressant that can help prevent migraine. These medications make you drowsy, so they may help you sleep and prevent migraine episodes.

Can sleep help with migraine?

When you’re experiencing migraine episodes, sleep is more important than ever. Researchers say that if your sleep pattern is poor quality, it may be the cause of frequent migraine episodes.

Changing your sleep schedule can be difficult, but it’s possible to change your habits gradually.

Lifestyle and migraine

There are ways you can help minimize the chance of experiencing migraine episodes. Experts recommend the mnemonic SEEDS (also known as sleep, exercise, eat, diary, and stress) for migraine management:

• Sleep: Keep a consistent sleep schedule of the same number of hours per day.
• Exercise: Regularly exercising can help reduce the severity of a migraine episode.
• Eat: Staying well hydrated and eating six small meals a day can help maintain steady blood sugar. Remember to notice triggers, such as caffeine.
• Diary: Keeping a diary of your migraine episodes can help your doctor highlight any potential triggers. It can also help you know or track how your migraine episodes affect your daily function.
• Stress: Stress can be a major trigger for migraine episodes. Meditation and relaxation techniques can help reduce this risk.

Migraine prevention medications

According to the American Migraine Foundation, people who experience migraine are usually more likely to encounter a sleep disorder. If you experience migraine regularly, your doctor may prescribe medication to reduce their frequency and intensity, helping you to get a better sleep pattern.

Some of these medications may include:

• Calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonists (CGRP): These medications are one of the only groups of migraine-specific medications. They work on a particular protein in the brain that is associated with migraine pain. Current drugs in this group include:
  • erenumab (Aimovig)
  • fremanezumab (Ajovy)

• Beta-blockers: Beta-blockers can help if you have migraine alongside cardiovascular disease. Beta-blockers are some of the most effective medications for preventing migraine. Some medications include:
  • propranolol (Inderal)
  • atenolol (Tenormin)
  • metoprolol (Toprol XL)
  • timolol
  • nadolol (Corgard)

• Anticonvulsants: Anticonvulsant medications prevent seizures. Some of them may also reduce migraine symptoms by decreasing the activity of nerves in your brain. Some of these drugs include:
  • valproate
  • topiramate (Topamax)
  • gabapentin (Neurontin)

• Antidepressants: In addition to helping relieve the symptoms of depression and anxiety, some antidepressants may help with migraine prevention. This is due to the effects of serotonin and norepinephrine on pain and mood. These drugs include:
  • amitriptyline (Elavil)
  • venlafaxine (Effexor)
  • fluoxetine (Prozac)

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Migraine episode medication

These medications can treat migraine episodes at the time they occur, relieving symptoms or auras, or reducing their severity.

If you’re taking these medications frequently, you may wish to speak with your doctor about preventive medications.

These drugs include:

• Triptans: These medications increase your serotonin and reduce vasodilation — the cause of migraine symptoms. Some of these medications include:
  • zolmitriptan (Zomig)
  • almotriptan (Axert)
  • eletriptan (Relpax)
  • sumatriptan (Imitrex)
  • naratriptan (Amerge)

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• Antinausea drugs: These drugs help reduce vomiting and nausea that accompanies migraine episodes. But they don’t reduce pain, so you may consider taking pain relievers alongside antinausea drugs.
  • prochlorperazine
  • promethazine (Phenergan)
  • dimenhydrinate (Dramamine)
  • trimethobenzamide (Tigan)

• Pain relief: There are many over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription options for pain relief. Many of these medications are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that reduce pain and inflammation, including:
  • aspirin
  • ketorolac (Sprix)
  • diclofenac (Cataflam, Zipsor, Zorvolex)
  • naproxen (Naprosyn, Naprelan, Anaprox DS)
  • ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin)

Contacting a doctor

If you continue to have difficulty sleeping — alongside frequent migraine episodes — you should speak with your doctor and establish the best treatment plan for your condition. They may also ask you to keep a sleep diary to find whether any other factors may be affecting your health.

It’s also important to keep track of how much and how often you take medications to stop migraine symptoms. Taking too many medications can cause a rebound headache.

Summary

There are many drugs available to help manage migraine and prevent episodes. Antidepressant medications, which may help prevent episodes, may also help you sleep. Taking these medications can improve your sleep schedule, which in turn may improve your symptoms.

It’s important to be aware of overusing these medications, as this can place you at risk of a rebound headache.

If the pain continues, and you still find it difficult to get rest or sleep, seek further help from a doctor or healthcare professional.

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