Painsomnia, or insomnia caused by chronic pain, is a reality for many Americans. One small injury can manifest into a chronic injury that disrupts your sleep for the rest of eternity. Dealing with this can be insufferable as painsomnia seems to be stealing almost an hour of sleep from individuals.

According to the Sleep Foundation, out of a survey of 1200 adults, 95% of them say that they have lost at least an hour of sleep due to pain in the past week. The vast majority say that pain can cost them at least two hours of sleep each night. On average, respondents say that they are losing six hours of sleep per week to pain. This averages out to nearly an hour, or 51.5 minutes each night of sleep lost to pain.

Adults who have pain averaged about 6.7 hours of sleep a night. This is below the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep that each adult should be getting every night. A majority of adults do not reach the seven-hour minimum, and due to other causes outside of pain. Adults who do have pain, however, are also dealing with pain on top of the normal interruptions to sleep. This means that they may be getting even less sleep that is required compared to adults who don't deal with pain. According to a study, 25.4% of adults experienced chronic pain. There was a higher prevalence in women and white adults. Continue reading to learn more about how to cope with painsomnia. 

What is Painsomnia?

Painsomnia is not a specific medical term, but a term created by researchers who have documented the relationship between pain and sleep for a long time. Insomnia by itself is a condition that is diagnosed and involves the lack of sleep due to a known or unknown cause. Pain has a similar impairing effect, therefore it can be strongly linked to insomnia.

That being said, pain and insomnia may both coexist without a diagnosis of either one. Among those who reported feeling pain, at least 40.3% said that they have not been diagnosed with a sleep disorder. There are about a third of them who say that they have received insomnia diagnosis, with about 24% saying they've received a diagnosis of sleep apnea and 21% having restless leg syndrome.

Regardless of the diagnosis, there are few ways in which pain affects sleep. First, it affects sleep latency, or the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. People who have pain toss and turn a lot before going to sleep period about 55% of surveyed adults said that pain kept them from falling asleep at night. The connection between sleep and pain is by directional. Sleep loss increase the perception of pain as well, and pain can cause insomnia. Therefore you have this vicious cycle of each one worsening the other, with the improvement of each other leading to the improvement of the other one.

The amount of pain can be affected by one's profession as well. Those who are in more manual labor professions, like farming or warehouse work, report losing two hours more of sleep each night due to pain compared to those in non manual fields or tech. However pain is not only reserved to those in the workforce. Unemployed people, students, and retired individuals are also likely to experience pain every night of the week. Retired individuals were the least likely, however, to lose more than an hour of sleep a night.

The type of pain keeping people awake

All types of pain can keep people from sleeping period of those who surveyed, 56.2% of people who lost sleep had back pain. Following back pain, 41.3% had neck pain, 32.2% had head pain, and 29.4% had knee pain.

When individuals were asked to rate their pain on a scale of 0 to 10, 10 being the most severe pain, 73.1% of people say their nightly pain was at a level 5 or higher. This means that most people are experiencing at least moderate pain. Pain doesn't have to be extreme to keep one awake. Even mild forms of pain can result in different levels of insomnia. And then when one does fall asleep with this pain, they are likely to wake up experiencing that same pain again. Pain not only has the ability to diminish sleep quantity, but also sleep quality which is an important aspect of sleeping.

How pain changed asleep

Sleep positions are vital. Pain in the back, neck, or anywhere else can affect how you fall and stay asleep. You may have to avoid sleeping on one part of your body so that way you don't put too much pressure on it and increase the level of pain that you may be experiencing. This can make sleeping very difficult if positions that relieve pain are uncomfortable for sleep. For example, those with ankle issues may experience increased difficulty going to sleep. This is because propping one's ankle up may force them to sleep on their back even if they are not back sleepers.

Those who experience difficulties staying asleep and falling asleep may have interrupted circadian rhythms. Waking up too early can cause advanced sleep phase cycle, which means you'll get very sleepy early in the evening. Waking up too late, however, can do the exact opposite and make it difficult for you to fall asleep early in the evening and wake up early in the morning. For those who have jobs or school that starts early in the morning, this change in schedule can be very disruptive to their daily activities.

Coping skills

Because painsomnia impacts so many people, it is important to learn the various coping skills that some have taken up. About half the adults who were surveyed sought to find care for their pain from a health care professional. About 70% of the adults take some sort of medication, 60% being non prescription and 53% being non-prescription or a combination of both.

About 55.8% of people surveyed who have lost sleep due to pain have taken at least one dose of sleep medication in the past month period melatonin was the most popular with about half the respondents saying they use it to help them go to sleep period diphenhydramine or Benadryl was another popular choice with about 23.4% of respondents saying that they use it as well.

However, medication alone may not supply results. Support groups have also emerge as a way to provide the safe space for individuals experiencing pain. Pain preventing one from sleep is so widespread that it is easy to find individuals who are also struggling similarly. Although only about 20% of people who were surveyed said that they participated in these groups, 90% of those individuals say that these groups have been effective in helping them manage and understand their sleep period many groups were available through a simple online search, or even recommendations from health professionals, family, and friends.

Some advice that you can find in these groups includes different coping skills, and even encouragement to seek out help such as CBT-I. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is a type of therapy that is specific towards solving insomniac issues. These professionals can help you overcome negative thought cycles and negative behaviors that may be perpetuating sleep disturbances due to pain.

If you are an individual who consistently struggles with pain insomnia, you do not have to struggle anymore. Please click the orange button below to take a free online sleep test and talk with one of our sleep health professionals.

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/painsomnia-steals-an-hour-of-sleep-nightly