Effect of Dietary Fatty Acids on Sleep and Stress Among Adults With Migraine: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial

To determine whether dietary interventions that reduce headache also improve sleep and stress in adults with migraine. We conducted a 16-week, three arm, parallel group, randomized, modified double blind, controlled trial in North Carolina. Participants were 182 adults (88% women, mean age 38y) with migraines on 5–20 days per month. The 3 diets were designed with EPA, DHA, and linoleic acid altered as controlled variables: H3 diet (n = 61)—increase EPA + DHA to 1.5 g/day and maintain linoleic acid at around 7% of energy; H3L6 diet (n = 61)—increase n-3 EPA + DHA to 1.5 g/day and decrease linoleic acid to ≤ 1.8% of energy; control diet (n = 60)—maintain EPA + DHA at <150 mg/day and linoleic acid at around 7% of energy. Sleep quality, stress rating, and the number of headache hours per day were pre-specified endpoints assessed daily with an electronic diary. Sleep quality was rated on a 1–4 scale, with higher score indicating better quality. Stress was rated on a 0–10 scale, with higher score indicating more stress. Longitudinal mixed models were used to estimate between-group differences at end of study. Mediation analyses examining headache hours as a mediator (paramed command in Stata 17) controlled for baseline BMI, age, sex, headache hours, and baseline values of the respective outcome. At baseline, mean sleep quality was 2.5 (SD 0.5) and stress rating was 3.0 (SD 1.6). In intention-to-treat analyses, the H3L6 group significantly increased sleep quality and reduced stress level relative to the control group (difference 0.2, 95% confidence interval 0.05 to 0.3; −0.6, −0.9 to −0.3, respectively). There was a similar trend in the H3 vs. control group, although only statistically significant for increased sleep quality (0.1, 0.02 to 0.2) but not for reduced stress rating (−0.3, −0.6 to 0.02). In mediation analyses, the reduction in headache hours per day explained ∼60% of the effect of the combined interventions on sleep quality (natural indirect effect = 0.09, p = 0.006). For stress, the reduction in headache hours per day explained ∼45% of the effect of the combined interventions (natural indirect effect = −0.14, p = 0.078). The H3L6 intervention improved sleep quality and decreased stress. Findings suggest that these improvements occurred partially as a result of headache reduction. NCCIH.