Quality Sleep Is The Key To Reducing Chronic Pain

Today's post from sciencedaily.com (see link below) looks at the link between chronic pain and sleeping problems; something familiar to most neuropathy patients, for whom their pain is worse at night. It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation, in that nobody seems sure whether it's lack of sleep that increases pain; or pain causing lack of sleep. However, as we all know, a bad night's sleep due to pain can lead to insomnia and yet more pain. Is this a thought-produced reaction which is almost psychosomatic, or is it simply that nerve pain prevents quality sleep? One thing is sure: if a neuropathy patient happens to have a great night's sleep (a rarity), he or she feels so much better the next day and that includes less pain! An interesting article: worth a read.
 

Sleep is key to curing chronic pain
Date:September 21, 2016 Source:University of Warwick

'I won't be able to cope with my pain if I don't sleep well.' Based on this complaint, new research from the University of Warwick reveals that the way chronic pain patients think about pain and sleep leads to insomnia and poor management of pain.

Researchers from the Sleep and Pain Lab in the Department of Psychology have demonstrated that conditions like back pain, fibromyalgia, and arthritis are directly linked with negative thoughts about insomnia and pain, and this can be effectively managed by cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).

Esther Afolalu and colleagues have formulated a pioneering scale to measure beliefs about sleep and pain in long-term pain patients, alongside their quality of sleep -- the first of its type to combine both pain and sleep and explore the vicious cycle between sleep and pain problems.

The scale was tested on four groups of patients suffering from long-term pain and bad sleeping patterns, with the result showing that people who believe they won't be able to sleep as a result of their pain are more likely to suffer from insomnia, thus causing worse pain.

The results show that the scale was vital in predicting patients' level of insomnia and pain difficulties. With better sleep, pain problems are significantly reduced, especially after receiving a short course of CBT for both pain and insomnia.

The study has provided therapists the means with which to identify and monitor rigid thoughts about sleep and pain that are sleep-interfering, allowing the application of the proven effective CBT for insomnia in people with chronic pain.

Esther Afolalu explains: "Current psychological treatments for chronic pain have mostly focused on pain management and a lesser emphasis on sleep but there is a recent interest in developing therapies to tackle both pain and sleep problems simultaneously. This scale provides a useful clinical tool to assess and monitor treatment progress during these therapies."

Dr. Nicole Tang, the study senior author, comments: "Thoughts can have a direct and/or indirect impact on our emotion, behaviour and even physiology. The way how we think about sleep and its interaction with pain can influence the way how we cope with pain and manage sleeplessness. Based on clinical experience, whilst some of these beliefs are healthy and useful, others are rigid and misinformed. The new scale, PBAS, is developed to help us pick up those beliefs that have a potential role in worsening the insomnia and pain experience."

'Development of the Pain-Related Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep (PBAS) Scale for the Assessment and Treatment of Insomnia Comorbid with Chronic Pain' is published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Warwick. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:
Esther F. Afolalu, Corran Moore, Fatanah Ramlee, Claire E. Goodchild, Nicole K.Y. Tang. Development of the Pain-Related Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep (PBAS) Scale for the Assessment and Treatment of Insomnia Comorbid with Chronic Pain. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2016; 12 (09): 1269 DOI: 10.5664/jcsm.6130

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160921084808.htm