Neurology
Neurology is one of the many specialties at The Insomnia and Sleep Institute, where Dr. Vimala Sravanthi Vajjala focuses on treating patients for epilepsy, facial pain, and headaches—all of which can negatively affect sleep. Neurology and sleep are intertwined. Sleep deprivation and lack of quality sleep impacts the brain’s normal function in a myriad of ways, such as causing problems in vision, memory, pain control, seizure control, and more. If you don’t get enough quality sleep, whether from untreated sleep apnea (which is very common) or another cause, your risk of memory issues, stroke, seizures, and headaches drastically increases.
Poor sleep quality can trigger and aggravate chronic headaches, including migraines. In turn, all kinds of headaches as well as facial pain can be a catalyst for insomnia and worsen sleep quality. The American Migraine Foundation estimates that up to 75 percent of American adults with chronic pain conditions, particularly migraines, also struggle with insomnia. Sleep is a popular tool to temporarily relieve headache, migraine, and facial pain, but can lead to a vicious cycle of staying in bed too long, sleeping during the day, and ultimately worsening insomnia by trying to use sleep as a “treatment” for migraines.
Seizures can often present as a type of sleep disorder, such as dream enactment behavior or sleep talking. However, in these instances, what is occurring are nocturnal seizures—sometimes due to epilepsy. There has been an association between sleep and epilepsy dating back to ancient Greece. By the nineteenth century, it was found that around 20 percent of people who experienced epilepsy seizures did so exclusively during sleep. Various sleep stages, such as REM and non-REM sleep, can either activate or inhibit epilepsy episodes. The relationship between headaches, seizures, and sleep is a complex one that requires unique experts—which are available to patients at The Insomnia and Sleep Institute of Arizona.
Treatments and Experience
Quadruple board-certified in Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology, Headache Medicine, and Epilepsy, Dr. Vajjala’s years of expertise can help you address pain rooted in neurological issues. Dr. Vajjala is one of just circa 750 board-certified headache specialists in the country and even a smaller number of board-certified headache specialists in the country that also completed formal fellowship training in headache and facial pain. Her particular passions include treating epilepsy and migraines in women, autoimmune epilepsy, posttraumatic headaches, and cluster headaches. Some of Dr. Vajjala’s many skills include trigger point injections, nerve block injections, and botulinum toxin injections for headaches, as well as some other indications such as spasticity, cervical dystonia, and blepharospasms.
Associating sleep quality with headaches and seizures is nothing new. Aristotle suggested over 2,000 years ago that seizures and dreams, both viewed as altered states of consciousness, allowed the soul to disassociate from the body and prophesize the future. While that particular theory has long been debunked, it is clear that humans have long been aware of the relationship between seizures, pain, and sleep. Today, we know that sleep impacts the entire body and the quality of sleep is evident in all of our tissues. This means that sleep impairments can have vast and serious effects on neurological, immune, cardiovascular, and metabolic health. This means poor sleep can lead to higher risks of developing various neurological disorders, including epilepsy, stroke, neuromuscular disease, neurodegeneration, and movement disorders. When you improve your sleep, you improve headaches and facial pain while also decreasing risks and occurrences of seizures. It all starts with connecting with sleep professionals who are the leading expert in their field.