Chronic pain involves discomfort, inflammation, and other chronic illnesses that impact everyday life. Not only does chronic pain impact daytime function, but also negatively impacts the body's ability to go to sleep. Here is some information on what chronic pain is, common sleep disturbances, and some coping strategies to deal with pain for better sleep.
Pain is an unpleasant sensation that we experience when our nerve receptors send a signal to the brain that something is wrong. Pain can be acute, like when you first injure yourself, or chronic, where the pain is lingering. Acute pain eventually heals and may have a short impact on your quality of life.
However, chronic pain lasts longer than a few weeks and can include problems like lower back pain, recurrent headaches, fibromyalgia, arthritis, or cancer pain.
Pain can also influence our sleep depending on its location and severity. Pain in the lower back can keep us from sleeping in certain positions comfortably, and intense joint pain can be too disruptive for good quality sleep.
Sleep may be impacted by chronic pain in a multitude of ways. This includes environmental disruption from noisy places like hospitals and long-term care facilities. It also can be from pain so severe, that it impacts your ability to transition into stage 3 and REM sleep. Without stage 3 and REM sleep, our sleep quality is so poor that it leads to restlessness and excessive daytime sleepiness.
Even medications can have side effects that impact sleep, or pain can lead to disorders like restless leg syndrome, that can also negatively impact the quality of sleep. Sleep can also impact sleeping positions. Joint pain can be exacerbated by certain positions, but other positions that relieve that pain may not be comfortable enough for sleep.
Other conditions like multiple sclerosis can cause diffuse pain that can lead to increasing movement and position switches during the night, which also leads to poorer sleep.
Chronic pain can also lead to mental health changes. There is this self-perpetuating cycle of pain, insomnia, and depression, or anxiety. Anxiety of pain or depression about the amount of pain may negatively impact one's ability to get good sleep, as they will lie awake, avoiding the pain of a poor night's sleep.
Then the lack of sleep also contributes to mental health disorders and mood instability, creating a vicious cycle of pain, depression, and sleep deprivation. The lower quality of life of those in chronic pain and who also cannot get good sleep may contribute to increased feelings of depression and hopelessness.
Those who are permanently sleep deprived due to their chronic pain may have an unhealthy relationship with sleep. There is a fear and avoidance that comes with the idea of another night of restless sleep.
In order to calm these feelings, it's essential to have positive coping skills that help to keep hope elevated, as well as relieve those disruptive feelings of anxiety and depression. There are a few techniques that may assist with this including:
If you are still having a lot of difficulty falling asleep, please talk with a professional as well as click the orange box below for a free online sleep test.
[Sources:]
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/pain-and-sleep
https://thebeddingplanet.com/are-blackout-curtains-worth-getting/