HOW YOUR SLEEP PATTERNS CAN LEAD TO PAIN

Do you consistently wake up feeling tired or worn out? A newstudy shows that it could be a sign of the onset of fibromyalgia. The studyalso found that anxiety, memory impairment and poor physical health were linkedto higher risk of developing fibromyalgia in older adults. This could indicatethat your sleep patterns may be a precursor to your future bouts with chronicpain.

The Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre at KeeleUniversity in Staffordshire reported findings in the journal Arthritis &Rheumatology. Musculoskeletal pain (affecting muscle, bone and nerve) becomesmore common with age, to the point where from age 65 onward, 4 out of 5 peoplehave pain every day.

Fibromyalgia, as we have discussed before in this blog, is acondition where a patient experiences fatigue accompanied by long-term pain inseveral areas of the body, plus tenderness in the muscles, joints, tendons andother soft tissues.

Estimates suggest around 5 million Americans aged 18 andover are affected by fibromyalgia. A majority of those diagnosed with thecondition are women, although it can also affect men and children. Most peopleare diagnosed in middle age, although symptoms can show up earlier.

In the study over 4,300 adults over the age of 50 who werefree of widespread pain at the start of the study period filled inquestionnaires about pain, mental and physical health, lifestyle and healthbehaviors and medical conditions. They were followed for 3 years and thenre-assessed for their development of pain. The results showed that at the3-year follow-up, 19% of the participants reported new widespread pain. Thisincluded 25% of participants who had reported some pain and 8% who had reportedno pain at the start of the study.

The strongest link to development of chronic pain duringthis study was with non-restorative sleep, even though the study was notdesigned to establish cause and effect, so the researchers cannot say whethernon-restorative sleep is a cause or effect of fibromyalgia.

So if you find yourself falling into this category, what canyou do? Research has also shown that aerobic exercise improves fitness andreduces pain and fatigue, and should also improve sleep and overall health.