By Christina H Chororos, iPain Living Columnist
Pain and sleep. What a joke –and
not in a funny way. Once your
body begins grappling with pain,
sleep becomes quite elusivekind
of like Kris Kringle or the Tooth
Fairy. In all seriousness, pain and
insomnia have long been associated
with increased pain sensitivity –
and no, it is not all in our heads. In
fact, in a recent study published by
Staffe, et al. found that one night of
total sleep deprivation impaired
descending pain pathways, facilitated
spinal excitability, and sensitized
peripheral pathways to cold
and pressure pain. In other words,
sleep deprivation increases pain.
To quote people much younger
than me –duh.
Chronic pain and illness sufferers
have been complaining about this
from the moment we felt our first
twinge of pain. Though medicine
and science wanted more evidence
before drawing concrete conclusions,
we did not need anyone to
present us with scientific facts to
prove the connection between pain
and insomnia. As it turns out, the
majority of people who live with
chronic pain experience poor quality
sleep and it has been estimated
that those with chronic pain are 18
times more likely than their painfree
counterparts to meet the criteria
for a clinical diagnosis of insomnia
(Whibley et al., 2019).
More so, Staffe et al. goes on to
explain that sleep quality declines
with various chronic pain conditions,
as shown in fibromyalgia,
burn injuries, and back pain. Studies
have reported that at least 50%
of patients with diverse chronic
pain conditions suffer from sleep
impairments.
Additionally, sleep impairments
have been described as valuable
predictors for new incidences and
worsening of symptoms linked to
chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia,
rheumatoid arthritis
(RA), and orofacial and back pain
as patients with co-occurring sleep
impairments seem to experience
worsened pain symptoms.
For me, sleep was one of my most
favorite activities. So much so, that
my late father named me
Garfield;A moniker I took quite
seriously - especially during my
college heydays. However, after
being a chronic pain sufferer for
the past 12-years, I have retired
from sleeping as a sport.
I remember when the insomnia began
for me. It was 2008 and I was
just diagnosed with deep infiltrating
endometriosis. The pain was
unbearable. The surgeries were un-