Chronic pain| Sleep disturbances

Author: Jennifer Chu, M.D.,

Article:
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. © 2007 copyright all rights reserved
www.stopmusclepain.com Chronic pain| sleep disturbances 

About the author:
Jennifer Chu, M.D., founder of eToims Soft Tissue Comfort
Center® is also President and CEO of eToims Medical Technology
LLC, a medical device company with training programs in eToims®
Twitch Relief Method. She is an Emeritus Associate Professor in
the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the
University of Pennsylvania, where has been on faculty for more
than 30 years. www.stopmusclepain.com