Researchers have discovered that there is a strong link between lack of sleep and chronic pain. Also, since those with pain tend to worry about whether or not they will get sleep, insomnia has been commonly seen in those with chronic pain, and this tends to make the severity of the pain that they feel even worse.
In many ways, this is a self fulfilling prophecy. The pain leads to sleeplessness and worry, and the sleeplessness leads to more pain. Researchers, now that they are confident that this is the case, are looking at ways in which to solve the problem. Some of the suggestions that have given include cognitive therapy, physical therapy, and more in depth pain management techniques. Some doctors have been prescribing sleep aids to the elderly in order to help them alleviate the stress and anxiety of insomnia, but almost everyone agrees that this is only a short term solution to the problem. Long term solutions need to avoid the use of powerful drugs. That goes for both sleeping aids and pain killers. This is why cognitive therapy is a very exciting solution. And because of the fact that insomnia is often a mental or emotional issue, cognitive therapy can be a great tool for helping to make sleep come a little bit easier.
New research shows that sleep and chronic pain are more closely related than first thought.
Chronic pain can be exceptionally difficult to treat in the elderly, and even those that are otherwise healthy tend to be in great need of senior care when pain becomes too much to handle on a daily basis. Either through something simple like in-home care, or even more in depth types of care like that found at a nursing home, can become necessary when someone experiences chronic pain. Pain makes life tough to get through, especially when it never really goes away, and even the simple activities of daily living can become major ordeals. Having help in some way or another is not only a helpful idea, for some it’s the only way for them to get through the day in a safe way.
The above referenced study was the first of its kind to receive major attention. It combined both actual sleep patterns and beliefs about sleep and its benefits with pain levels in chronic pain sufferers. The hope is that this pioneering study can help pave the way to improvement in how pain is dealt with in the elderly, and come up with an effective and drug free solution to helping those that need it. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in this field still, but it could be a huge first step. Cognitive therapy holds great benefits here because researchers found that people’s beliefs about pain and sleep influenced the amount of sleep that they obtained. Through helping people to rethink their beliefs on these topics, they could get more sleep and improve their symptoms as a result. This is a far better alternative to opioid usage and the myriad of problems that comes along with this.
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