A new study from the University of Queensland suggests that poor sleep may play a significant role in worsening and maintaining chronic pain. This research challenges the conventional understanding that pain is the primary cause of sleep disturbances, proposing instead that inadequate sleep can prime the nervous and immune systems to amplify pain signals.
The Link Between Sleep and Pain
Dr. David Klyne from UQ's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, a recipient of the UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award, is leading the investigation into how sleep influences pain recovery. According to Dr. Klyne, up to 90% of chronic pain cases coexist with poor sleep. His research indicates that poor sleep may not just be a consequence of pain but a contributing factor to its persistence.
"Up until recently it’s been thought pain causes poor sleep, but our research suggests it’s the other way around – that poor sleep worsens and potentially maintains pain," Dr. Klyne stated.
Impact on Acute Pain Recovery
The study highlights the critical role of sleep in recovering from acute pain caused by injury. The quality of sleep directly impacts how well individuals recover, with worse sleep exacerbating pain and potentially driving the development of chronic pain.
"If you’re experiencing acute pain caused by injury, we’ve shown how well you recover depends on how well you sleep," Dr. Klyne explained. "Worse sleep primes the nervous and immune systems to enhance pain and potentially drive the development of chronic pain."
Clinical Trials and Future Directions
To further investigate this relationship, Dr. Klyne's team is conducting clinical trials using head devices to monitor sleep patterns in chronic pain patients. These trials also involve blood and saliva tests to assess patients' hormonal, neural, and immune responses to periods of good and disrupted sleep.
The researchers are examining how different sleep patterns, such as deep sleep and light sleep, differentially impact recovery. For example, disrupted deep sleep might have a more significant influence on recovery than the loss of light sleep.
Implications for Chronic Pain Treatment
Chronic pain affects at least 20% of the world's population and causes more disability than cancer and heart disease combined. Dr. Klyne emphasizes that sleep as a treatment for pain is often overlooked, and his research aims to change this perspective.
"If we can establish that poor sleep contributes to the development of chronic pain, then we’ll be able to focus on developing and refining sleep treatments for the purpose of preventing chronic pain," he said. "This work could fundamentally shift the way our health system considers sleep in the context of pain."
By increasing the understanding of the relationship between sleep and pain, the researchers hope to encourage more clinicians to consider sleep as a legitimate treatment for patients with pain.
