Can lack of sleep make pain worse?
TLDR: Yes, lack of sleep can make pain worse. However, the first line treatment for sleep issues can also help those with chronic pain to improve sleep and reduce pain. Learn more about treatment here.
If you’ve got chronic pain, you know it can feel isolating and debilitating.
Chronic pain affects about one in four adults and 50 million US adults live with daily chronic pain (1)
Chronic pain can negatively impact sleep. As you may have experienced, pain can make it difficult to get comfortable, it can increase the stress response in the body and make it hard to shift into a restful sleep.
It makes sense that pain impacts sleep but the reverse is true too.
Did you know that not sleeping well can increase pain?
Sleep loss lowers pain thresholds and amplifiers spontaneous pain. In other words, our awareness of pain is heightened when we’re sleep deprived.
It’s the difference between noticing a papercut after the fact and thinking “Huh, when did I get a papercut?” then forgetting about it compared to noticing immediately when the papercut happens and feeling aware of the discomfort and tenderness of the papercut all. day. long.
Research shows that poor sleep often predicts next-day pain (2).
Many people know that sleep can help intuitively and try to sleep more but there are a few pitfalls.
…If only it were as easy as just sleeping more...
Common pitfalls to trying to “just sleep more.”
We can’t directly control sleep, and trying to force ourselves to sleep can backfire and create more stress and worries “Why can’t I just sleep?” “What’s wrong with me”
Long naps can disrupt nighttime sleep and lead to what I call “yo-yo” sleep. You get a great night of sleep and a nice long nap, then have a terrible night, then a good night or two then a bad night or two and so on. It’s unpredictable and even on the nights when you sleep a lot, it sometimes might even feel worse or more groggy the next day.
Sleep Aids: While sleep aids can help in the short-term, most aren’t meant to be used long term and many times people struggle with sleep while on the sleep prescriptions or worry about the side effects of long-term use.
The first-line recommended treatment for sleep difficulties in general, also works well for people with chronic pain.
This treatment helps improve sleep and can disrupt the vicious cycle between chronic pain and sleep difficulties and works in just 6-8 weeks.
It works in several ways including:
Strengthening the circadian rhythm or the body clock. This can also help prevent any great night/crappy night swinging pendulum that might be going on as well as helping with alertness during the day and sleepiness at night.
Builds the body’s sleep drive which helps you get deeper, more restful sleep.
Helps reduce stress associated with the bed.
Helps with the worries about pain and sleep. Not sleeping and being in pain are both stressful! It’s common to have thoughts like “I can’t handle this” “I' feel like I’ll never sleep again” even if you don’t really believe it. This treatment helps manage and supports with reducing the stress that comes from being in pain and sleep deprived.
Through this process sleep improves and pain often decreases. While you may still be awoken with pain, a common outcome is that it happens less often and returning to sleep is much easier.
In the first appointment, most providers will ask you lots of questions to truly understand your sleep and set up a customized plan for you to support the natural sleep mechanism (sleep drive) and body clock (circadian rhythm).
If you’re interested to learn more, you can schedule a free consultation or reach out with any questions.
If we haven’t met yet, Hello! I’m Kasryn (she/her) the author of this post and a real human.
I help exhausted adults break the cycle of sleepless nights and support pain relief through getting great rest using research-backed approaches.
Learn more about sleep treatment
Schedule a free consultation or ask a question
References
(1) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db518.htm