Are you suffering from chronic pain or anticipating a painful procedure such as surgery? There’s a simple way to reduce your sensitivity to pain. It’s free, safe and even more effective than taking a painkiller such as codeine. All you need to do is get a little more sleep, a small but encouraging new study suggests.
Participants were all healthy, pain-free and mildly sleep-deprived (as confirmed by tests that measure daytime sleepiness). They habitually slept for an average of seven hours and 42 minutes per night.
Half of the participants (the control group) were instructed to maintain their usual sleep pattern for the four consecutive nights of the study, while the other half were told to spend 10 hours in bed per night. The sleep-encouraged participants ended up sleeping an average of 1.8 hours longer per night than the control group did.
Now here’s the pain part. At the start and end of the four-day study period, each participant underwent pain testing using what is called a radiant heat stimulus. It involves placing a finger over a small hole in a box that contains a 100-watt light bulb so that the finger is just four millimeters (a bit less than one-quarter of an inch) away from the heat source. Volunteers were told to move their fingers away as soon as they felt any pain. The maximum heat generated was 101.6°F—not particularly hot, but painful if a sensitive fingertip is steadily exposed to it.
Researchers measured how many seconds each participant kept his or her finger on the hole. What they found: Volunteers who had gotten the extra sleep kept their fingers on the heat source for 10 seconds, on average—versus just eight seconds for those who had continued to short-change their slumber. This 25% reduction in pain sensitivity attributed to the extra sleep exceeds the 14% reduction in pain experienced by people in a separate study who were given the same test after taking 60 mg of codeine (the high end of the standard dosage range).
Keep in mind: The test measures the point at which people first feel pain, not their ability to tolerate pain—so the extra sleep didn’t just help people “tough it out,” but rather actually diminished their perception of pain.
The study didn’t probe the reasons why sleep reduces pain sensitivity. However, study leader Timothy Roehrs, PhD, said that it probably involves cytokines, inflammatory proteins that help the body’s cells communicate with each other in the event of damage. “In a stressful situation, you have an increased release of cytokines as a protective mechanism. A reduction in sleep time is stressful, so it’s likely that cytokines are activated. Extra sleep helps counteract this,” he explained.
Though this study focused only on acute pain, Dr. Roehrs said that additional sleep probably helps reduce sensitivity to virtually any type of physical pain, whether chronic or temporary.
Granted, time spent in lying in bed isn’t exactly equal to time spent actually sleeping. However, if you stay in bed longer than usual—nine to 10 hours is a good goal—you’re bound to sleep more than usual, too.
If you know that pain lies ahead: You can plan ahead to reduce pain sensitivity before a potentially painful medical procedure (such as a root canal, elective surgery or tough physical therapy session) or grueling physical challenge (running a marathon, competing in a tennis tournament). Simply spend nine to 10 hours in bed per night for at least four nights before that pain-inducing event. While pain sensitivity may be reduced somewhat after only two or three nights of extra sleep, Dr. Roehrs said that four or more nights generally are needed for any meaningful reduction.
If you’re already in pain: The pain from an existing injury (a sore back, a broken bone) or a chronic ailment (such as arthritis) can make it tough to get even a normal amount of sleep, much less any extra rest. If that’s your situation, consider talking with a naturopathic doctor about dietary changes and supplements that can help you sleep. For more Daily Health News articles on that topic, read “Can’t Sleep? Surprising Causes of Insomnia”…“Drink This to Sleep Soundly”…and “Insomnia Cure from Cherries.”
If these natural approaches aren’t enough to completely solve your sleep problems, your doctor may suggest a short course of prescription sleep-inducing medication or a consultation at a sleep center, a specialized clinic where insomnia and other sleep problems are diagnosed and treated. To find a sleep center near you, visit the Web site of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
