NIGHTTIME PAIN
DIS-LIST
BY MATT JACKSON, PHD
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With chronic pain, getting a good night’s sleep can be a constant battle. Pain assaults sleep on two fronts, the first being easier to guess: nighttime pain. Just moving in the night can jar you awake with pain disrupting your sleep cycle, causing health problems that worsen over time.1,2 Adults over the age of 65 who experience nighttime pain at least 3 times a week are 6 times more likely to feel excessively sleepy the next day,3 and persistent insomnia can cause depression, anxiety, and an increased risk for accidents and being absent at work or school.1
Before you jump in and say pain medications might help, the second thing disrupting sleep is more subtle: side effects. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin can cause gastroesophageal reflux disease.1 People often use proton pump inhibitors to manage side effects, but at night, stomach pH can get out of control and disrupt sleep with heartburn and acid indigestion.1,4 Opioids are more potent for pain relief, but they are even worse for sleep. Researchers monitored patients taking opioids for advanced cancer, and they found opioids lim-
