Have you ever noticed that when you have bad pain you can’t sleep well? How about the increase of your pain level when you did not have a good sleep? The relationship between sleep problems and chronic pain seems obvious. The complexity comes when we have to find out which one is causing the other.
If a patient has a bad lower back pain, Fibromylagia wide spread body pain, diabetic neuropathic feet pain or any other kind of severe chronic pain, falling asleep may be difficult. Staying asleep may be an issue as well with feelings of pain every time you try to move, the pain wakes you up. Improper pain control and poor treatment of pain intensity can interfere with a good night sleep.
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| Sleep helps heal all painful conditions |
On the other hand, sleep is a health need that can be disturbed for many other reasons that lead into sleep disorder. The inability to breath while sleeping can cause sleep apnea. This is when some partial obstruction in airways can reduce the level of oxygen at sleep. Most people with this condition have less refreshing sleep at night and more fatigue, mental fug and pain during the day. Improper time of sleep, using coffee after 2 PM, using bedroom for anything other than night sleep or sex, long naps during the day, improper combination of medicais tions and use of stimulating food or medication at night, lack of exercise, obesity, improper support from pillow and mattress, anxiety and racing mind are among a few reasons that can contribute to a poor night sleep.
So as you can see, without knowing the contributing factor it would be difficult to fix the condition. This is why the sleep problems continue and as a result the existing pain condition becomes worse. In return, the poor controlled pain becomes a factor to worsen the sleep. This vicious cycle goes on and on, leading into more poor health.
It is important to pay attention to SLEEP HYGIENE and PROPER PAIN MANAGEMENT in order to break this vicious cycle.
