If you struggle with migraine, then a new study has explained two of the biggest indicators of an impending migraine attack. A study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology says that sleep quality and energy levels play major roles.

“The major finding from this study was that changes in sleep quality and energy on the prior day were related to incident headache in the next day,” said Dr Kathleen Merikangas, principal investigator of the study told CNN.

Migraines should not be dismissed lightly, as they go beyond mere inconveniences. Among individuals under the age of 50, chronic migraines stand as the primary cause of disability.

Merikangas, who leads the genetic epidemiology research branch in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, and her team employed electronic diaries to monitor the behaviours and symptoms of 477 individuals over two weeks, as outlined in the study.

The research team discovered that the quality of sleep and energy levels were crucial indicators for predicting a migraine attack the following day.

“It’s a very exciting study because of how well done and how detailed and how large it is,” said Dr. Stewart Tepper, vice president of the New England Institute for Neurology and Headache in Stamford, Connecticut. Dr Tepper was not involved in the research.

Dr Tepper said knowing when a migraine is coming can make all the difference.

“If we can identify things in the environment that people can change, then we’d like to be able to prevent the attack in the first place,” Merikangas said. “If we can do that with behavioural interventions … then they may be able to prevent it by either going to sleep to offset it or some other intervention that would prevent us from having to use medication to prevent the attack.”

However, Dr Tepper said that he is not sure if changes in behaviour can always prevent a migraine attack.

Tepper recommends taking medication proactively before the onset of head pain, aiming to prevent any pain altogether.