Recent research has shown that patients with sleep disorders, on average, make more visits to healthcare teams with back pain than patients who not have problems with sleep. Researchers in the USA studied 757 patients with low back pain attending self-management classes at a US military hospital. More than two thirds of the patients were men and more than 80% were in the military (it it well known that sleep disorders are widespread in the US military).
What the researchers found was that patients diagnosed with a sleep disorder make more healthcare visits due to their low back pain and this is not related to how intense or disabling the pain is. The researchers now want to look at how sleep disorders affect outcomes of low back pain.
Although the results of this new research have just been published, you maybe thinking this is not that new – after all, we know that everything feels worse if we are tired. I often talk to pain about their sleep especially if their pain is keeping them awake or waking them as this really needs to be addressed. Amongst other things, sleep deprivation causes an increased risk of depression, infections, illnesses, impaired memory and obviously exhaustion, which understandably makes a person less able to be cope with pain.
So do not underestimate the importance of enough, quality sleep and if you are not able get this you should seek professional help.
