By You can also get chronic widespread pain from lack of sleep. Find out what you must do to avoid future health issues that may arise.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that around 35% of the adults in the country have what they refer to as short sleep duration.
This means that they get less than the recommended amount of at least seven hours of sleep per night. What makes this worse is that they also report that those who have short sleep duration are more likely to be obese, physically inactive, and current smokers.
Now there is another issue that people will want to be aware of when it comes to getting enough sleep – whether or not it is a predictor of chronic widespread pain.
In a study published in the November 2018 issue of the journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, researchers looked at if having sleep problems or fatigue were a predictor of onset chronic widespread pain.
They investigated the sleep problems and fatigue as a predictor over a five- and 18-year period. The study included 1249 people who at the baseline had not reported any kind of chronic widespread pain for at least the three preceding years. All of them were followed up with at the 5-year mark, and then 791 were followed up with at the 18-year mark.
The researchers investigated sleep habits, including such things as having difficulty falling asleep, maintaining sleep, early morning awakening, non-restorative sleep, and having fatigue.
The results showed that sleep problems and fatigue are both important factors in the onset of chronic widespread pain over a five-year perspective and over an 18-year perspective.
This was true irrespective of mental health, age, gender, socioeconomic status, and pain at baseline. They advise that the results of their study highlight how important it is to assess sleep quality and fatigue in the clinic.
Those who have sleep problems and fatigue should seek to address these problems so that it doesn’t lead to chronic widespread pain down the road.
Clinics that assess their patients for sleep problems and fatigue may be able to help their patients address these issues and avoid the pain problems later.
By addressing sleep problems, people may be able to save themselves years of dealing with chronic pain.
To be healthy, we should be aiming for at least 7 hours of sleep per night. It’s a good idea to establish a healthy bedtime routine that will help encourage quality sleep.
This includes:
- Trying to go to bed around the same time each night,
- Paying attention to what you eat or drink a couple of hours before bedtime
- Sleeping atmosphere, and having a healthy ritual leading up to bedtime, such as reading or taking a bath.
Sources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Short sleep duration among US adults. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data_statistics.html
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. Sleep problems and fatigue as predictors for the onset of chronic widespread pain over a 5- and 18-year perspective. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30390670
