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SUNDAY, Nov. 29, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Later school start times for teenagers might help those who struggle with migraines<\/a>, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n Starting school later in the morning could reduce the number of migraines<\/a> each month for these students, the researchers said. The delayed start would be a nod to teens<\/a>‘ later-to-bed, later-to-rise body clocks.<\/p>\n “Evidence suggests that there is a relationship between sleep<\/a> and migraine<\/a>,” said first author Dr. Amy Gelfand, a neurologist<\/a> at the University of California, San Francisco Children’s Hospitals. “Getting adequate sleep<\/a> and maintaining a regular sleep<\/a> schedule may reduce the frequency of migraines<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Gelfand noted that between 8% and 12% of adolescents experience migraines<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the study, the researchers found that teens<\/a> with migraines who started school before 8:30 a.m. had 7.1 headache<\/a> days a month on average, compared to 5.8 days a month on average for students who started school later. That was after taking into account risk factors such as sleep<\/a> loss, skipping breakfast, gender, homework volume and use of migraine<\/a> medication.<\/p>\n “The magnitude of the effect size in this study is similar to that seen in studies of migraine<\/a> prevention<\/a> drugs<\/a>,” Gelfand said in a university news release.<\/p>\n The study included more than 1,000 U.S. high school students. About half started school before 8:30 a.m. and half started later. The results were published online Nov. 25 in Headache<\/a>: The Journal of Head and Face Pain<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n “If our findings are confirmed in future research, shifting to a later high school start time is a modifiable, society-level intervention that could translate to thousands of fewer migraine<\/a> days and fewer missed days of school for teenagers,” said Gelfand, who will be the new editor-in-chief of Headache<\/a><\/em> in January.<\/p>\n The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends teens get between eight and 10 hours of sleep a night. The American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a> recommends middle and high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later. Parents have also raised concerns about drowsy driving, irritation and impaired school performance, according to the study.<\/p>\n Only about 18% of U.S. public middle and high schools offer the later start time, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. In 2019, California became the first state to legislate that high schools begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. That change begins in the 2022-2023 school year.<\/p>\n “The COVID-19<\/a> pandemic has led to widescale changes in how students attend schools,” Gelfand said. “As we rethink what a typical school day looks like, the time may be ripe for changing school start time as well.”<\/p>\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on school start times and sleep.<\/a><\/p>\n SOURCE: University of California, San Francisco, news release, Nov. 25, 2020<\/p>\n![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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