Health Solutions Live

Imagine lying in bed, unable to sleep due to the throbbing pain in your back. It’s been there for weeks, you can barely move from your bed, but you are not getting any decent sleep because of the intensity of the pain.

Losing sleep over pain is a fairly common occurrence, says David Neumeyer, MD, associate director of the Sleep Disorder Center at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Mass.

“Pain and sleep are integrally connected,” he explains. According to him, chronic pain is quite common in the overall population and even more common in people who suffer from lack of sleep, which tends to become a vicious cycle. Pain directly affects the capacity to sleep, and lack of good sleep makes the pain appear worse than it is.

Just how these two are linked depends on the person. Is pain a consequence of, or worsened by, a sleep disorder or is pain the cause of poor sleep quality?
Charles Bae, MD, a neurologist in the Sleep Disorders Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, states that pain is often the primary reason for waking up many times during the night, which then causes a drop in sleep quantity and quality. On the other hand, sleep deprivation can reduce your threshold and tolerance of pain, which can in turn make existing pain seem much worse.

“If you have arthritis and roll or turn while you are sleeping, pain can wake you up,” states David S Kloth, MD, founder, medical director, and president of Connecticut Pain Care in Danbury, as well as past president of the American Society of Intervention Pain Physicians.

The first thing to do is determine whether the lack of sleep is resulting in pain or if the pain is what is causing the lack of sleep, and then you treat whichever is the cause, he says.

Pain may not be the only issue getting in the way of your sleep. Some individuals might also suffer from an underlying sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea.

Neumeyer suggests being evaluated by a sleep specialist to assure there is no underlying sleep disorder.

Once it is correctly diagnosed, sleep experts agree that good treatment can greatly aid those living with chronic pain.

Improving the quality of your sleep (and getting more of it) can improve your pain threshold so you will hurt less, says Neumeyer.

“People in pain don’t sleep, and people who sleep have less pain,” agrees Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleep and clinical director of the sleep division for Arrowhead Health in Glendale, Arizona.

Improving the quality of sleep of people who suffer from chronic forms of pain (such as lower back pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia, and diabetic nerve pain) can be tough because most of these people usually don’t want to take any more drugs, states Breus.

These people are oftentimes already taking more than one medication to address their pain disorder. Also, some prescription sleeping medications may conflict with their current pain medications, which means they couldn’t take them even if they wanted to, says Breus.

Essentially, Breus becomes the Sherlock Holmes of sleep problems. He observes each person’s sleep habits and bedroom environment, which involves determining how old their mattress and pillows are, making sure they provide adequate support. He will also ask about their diet and habits; do they steer clear of caffeinated beverages after 2 p.m.? Do they exercise regularly? Do they make use of their bedroom only for sleep and sex? Each one of these things might also aid people in pain catch some ZZZs.

The bottom line, according to Cleveland Clinic’s Bae, is that if you suffer from chronic pain and have problems sleeping you should mention it to your doctor to see if anything can be done to aid your sleep while also treating your pain problems.

REFERENCE: (2010) Denise Mann. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/pain-sleep?ecd=wnl_fib_031610