06:48 PM PDT on Thursday, July 6, 2006

JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

Whether playing in the snow or teaching children their ABCs, Mary Simms is always on the go. But chronic headaches nearly sidelined her.

"Sometimes it was like somebody just walloped you and you are like aaagghhh," she said.

Medicine helped some, but real relief came when she fixed her sleep habits.

"It's like for the diabetic, diet must be taken seriously, for the headache patient, sleep must be taken seriously," said Dr. Anne Calhoun, a headache researcher at the University of North Carolina.

Dr. Calhoun led a small study of 43 women with chronic migraines. Those who improved their sleep habits not only dramatically reduced the number of headaches, but their severity as well.

KING

Mary Simms now gets only a few headaches a month and has nearly cut out all medicine.

Dr. Calhoun notes the solution does require commitment.

"We have to make the analogy to smoking - the fix here is simple – but not easy,” she said.

But it’s well worth it for Mary, who now gets only a few headaches a month and has nearly cut out all medicine.

What made all the difference? Going to bed at the same time every night, cutting out TV and reading in bed, eating at least four hours before bedtime and no daytime napping.

The research was conducted at the University of North Carolina and was reported at the 48th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society in Los Angeles. Financial support was provided by the National Headache Foundation.

Previous research shows that nonrestorative sleep and poor sleep habits are almost universally prevalent in women with transformed migraines.