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Author: Ron Cridland M.D.
Pain is a common cause of Insomnia and disturbed sleep. Acute and chronic pain can be the primary cause of disturbed sleep such as what can occur with injury, arthritis, and certain digestive disorders. Pain may be an aggravating factor for someone with preexisting insomnia. Pain can also be the result of chronically disturbed sleep as seen in Fibromyalgia.
Sleep is when you heal and recover from day-to-day wear and tear. If you cannot get adequate quantity or quality of sleep, then the day-to-day wear and tear accumulates, eventually resulting in sore tissues. This is the cause of fibromyalgia and can contribute to repetitive strain injuries like tennis elbow or other types of tendonitis.
If you have an injury or painful illness that disturbs your sleep, then this will interfere with your recovery from this condition. Many insomniacs can trace their sleep difficulties back to a whiplash type injury sustained in a car accident. Poor sleep may also explain why an otherwise fairly minor whiplash injury can become worse and disabling over time due to inability to heal.
Sleep is the key to healing. No matter what you eat, what medications you take or what treatments are done to you, if you don’t sleep, you don’t heal. There is definitely a place for pain medication to control pain at night so you can sleep. If you can get enough quality sleep, then the body may be able to heal the cause of the pain. The pain will reduce and hopefully resolve.
Some people use their pain medication so that they can function during the day. It is understandable why someone would do this. The problem is that pain is the body’s way of telling you not to do something so that you do not further aggravate the cause of your pain. If you hide the pain with medication then you are likely going to aggravate the cause of your pain which will make it more difficult to sleep at night. Poor sleep at night will prevent you from healing the cause of your pain and it will get worse. This is a slippery slope that you do not want to get on.
As inconvenient or disabling as pain may be, it is important that you do not do anything that will aggravate your pain or it will not heal. If you can tolerate the pain with rest or minimal analgesia then you will be better able to sleep and heal at night. If you are going to use pain medication, it would be better to use it at night so you can sleep and heal until you no longer have need for analgesia.
