Sleep: Why a good night's sleep can help your pain levels, and top tips to improve your sleep

Why sleep is so important?
Sleep has been found to be a very important factor in chronic pain. Have you ever found that when you are tired or grumpy, your pain is worse? This is because research has found a poor night's sleep or lack of sleep correlates with a heightened pain sensitivity, and that means the body is more sensitive to the things that set off your pain experience. 

Not only does sleep affect your pain sensitivity, it will stop you from performing at your full potential!

On the other side of the coin, if poor sleep amount and quality negatively impacts your pain experience, then improving both sleep quality and amount can help improve your pain!

How much sleep is enough sleep?
Everyone knows how much sleep we should be getting per night, for most it is usually 7-9 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep. For some people however, as little as 6 hours or as much as 10 hours is the best amount of sleep for them. 

Have you ever felt drowsy during the day when doing an exciting activity? Have you ever fallen asleep very quickly once you lay down? Have you ever had microsleeps (tiny sleeps when you are otherwise awake)? If this is the case, there is a good chance you are not getting the amount of sleep you need or your sleep is of poor quality. 

​So in order to find out how much sleep you need, you will need to track your hours of sleep and track how you feel during the day, this helps determine what your best amount of sleep is. New technologies, like wrist based fitness watches are very helpful for this as they can track the amount of sleep you have and the quality of sleep you have. 

Here are some helpful tips below to help you improve your sleep so you can improve how you function during the day. 

Tips for improving sleep quality 

• Establish a bedtime and wake up time, this will help make the amount of sleep you get consistent. 
• Establish a pre bedtime routine that you go through prior to every night's sleep. ​
• When attempting to sleep, be mindful and relaxed, try not to think about other things going on in your life. There are mobile phone applications that are made to try and help this mindfulness, that use calming and soft music to help you drift off. 
• Avoid naps during the day. Napping during the day will lessen the sleep you need the next night and potentially making it harder to get to sleep.
• ​Avoid being awake in bed for longer than 10 minutes, especially when you wake up. If you find your mind is racing, sit in a chair with no stimulation from tv’s or phones and let your mind race there until you become sleepy again. 
• Don't watch TV, read or play on your phone in bed. These things create the association in your brain with laying in bed and being awake. Bed is for sleeping​
• Avoid caffeine, vigorous exercise and eating directly prior to sleeping, this helps to be calm and ready for bed. 
• The last one. Exercise regularly! People who exercise regularly tend to have better and more continuous sleep!

Sweet dreams!
Izaac Boylan 
Accredited Exercise Physiologist