Pain-related sleep loss is a real thorn in the side of society. The 2015 Sleep in AmericaTM Poll found that 21% of Americans experience chronic pain. It also found that 36% of people have experienced acute pain in the last week.
The bottom line? It indicates that more people were in pain than weren’t in pain within the last week. If you are reading this, you are likely in the majority (pain) category.
The question is why we are in so much pain? Some more straight-forward factors may be:
The question is, beyond being a nuisance in your life, what else is wrong with pain?
Pain matters for several obvious reasons:
When you are in chronic or acute pain, it’s much harder to be happy, stay motivated, manage stress, and stay active. Very importantly, the vicious cycle of being in pain is how it impact sleep. It’s a vicious cycle because pain makes you lose sleep, and loss of sleep can deeply impact your well-being in a negative way, particularly happiness, staying active, staying motivated, and managing stress (37% of people with chronic pain reported elevated stress level compared to 7% of pain-free people who reported the same).
Based on the above linked survey, there are two startling results for people who live with pain:
The point here is that there is a direct link between pain and sleep loss. Let’s compare this to people who aren’t in pain, based on the survey:
Not only does pain cause you to sleep less, but it impacts the quality of sleep as well. This seems to be particularly true in the case of chronic pain. As an aside, 23% of people with chronic pain reported being diagnosed with a sleep disorder by a doctor, compared to just 6% of pain free people.
Though you might not be able to take away the pain, there are main steps you can take to help improve your chances of getting a restful night’s sleep. Here are some good examples:
Doing all of these can make a huge difference in your sleep time and quality, especially if you have chronic pain.
If you live in Alaska, have pain, and can’t seem to sleep no matter what you do, please reach out to us by taking this free sleep survey.