Chronic Pain – Sleep Disturbances

Sleep disturbances have been known to cause or modulate acute and chronic pain. Some studies have shown a relationship between sleep disruption and pain hypersensitivity. Pain hypersensitivity from paradoxical sleep deprivation could be due to a reduction of participation of the opioid and serotoninergic mechanisms of action in neurotransmission in the brain. Apparently, sleep deprivation can interfere with analgesic treatments involving opioid and serotoninergic mechanisms of action. Substance P (SP) and neurokinins have been implicated in modulating pain and mood and have also been found to produce disturbances in sleep to action on different receptors.

Whether the pain hypersensitivity effects are due to the deprivation of specific sleep stages or whether they result from a generalized disruption of sleep continuity are still not known.
However, in a study on normal participants, loss of 4 hours of sleep and specific rapid eye movement (REM) sleep loss cause the pain-free participants to be hyperalgesic the following day. These findings imply that pharmacologic treatments and clinical conditions that reduce sleep and REM sleep time may increase pain.

Sleep quality is also found to be significantly predictive of pain, fatigue, and social functioning in patients with fibromyalgia interfering with health-related quality of life. Interventions designed to improve sleep quality may help to improve health-related quality of life for patients with fibromyalgia. Since depression is a significant contribution to sleep problems, treatment of associated depression will need to be also addressed for those who suffer from pain related sleep disturbances.

eToims Soft Tissue Comfort Center specializes in diagnosis and treatment which ends muscle discomfort and pain.