Is Your Pain Keeping You Up at Night? We Can Help

Sleep, which is crucial for your overall health, influences every facet of your well-being. It’s like a reset for your body — a time for repairing and rejuvenating.

If you suffer from chronic pain, sleep may not come easy, and not getting enough sleep may exacerbate your pain condition. 

Is your pain keeping you up at night? Our orthopedic surgeon and pain management physicians, Dr. Ojedapo Ojeyemi and Dr. Matthew Roh, at Orthopedic & Wellness in Frederick, Waldorf, and Germantown, Maryland, can help. Here, we examine the relationship between sleep and pain and describe what you can do to improve both.

How pain affects sleep

Pain is complex, and it affects everyone differently. How pain keeps you up at night depends on the location and type of pain you have. 

You may struggle to fall asleep because the pain makes it difficult to get comfortable. Or your sleep position may bring on the pain, causing you to wake up and then have trouble falling back asleep. 

Adults need at least seven hours of sleep a night. The insomnia — difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep — that occurs with pain may make that number challenging to reach.

But sleep quality counts, too. Sleep comes in stages. In order to feel well-rested when you wake up, you need to hit each sleep stage for the right amount of time. 

If your pain disrupts the sleep cycle, your sleep quality is poor and you don’t get the rest you need, even if you sleep for seven hours. 

How poor sleep affects pain

Pain keeping you up at night is one thing, but poor sleep may worsen your discomfort. Research shows that not getting enough sleep or enough high-quality sleep makes you more sensitive to pain. So your inability to get a good night’s rest makes your pain level go up.

Lack of sleep also affects immune function. If you’re not getting enough sleep, inflammation increases. Depending on the cause, worsening inflammation may increase the frequency and severity of your pain. 

Getting help for pain and sleep

Improving pain control can help you sleep better, and getting better sleep can improve pain management. We can help you improve both.

We specialize in pain management for chronic conditions such as back pain, neck pain, and knee pain. After completing a thorough history and physical exam and identifying the cause of your pain, we create a personalized treatment plan, which may include:

• Oral pain medication
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
• Pain patches
• Physical therapy
• Massage therapy
• Nerve blocks

Once we have a good pain plan in place, we can help you develop a sleep plan. This may include sleeping in a different position or investing in a head or body pillow to reduce pressure on the painful areas of your body. 

We also help you develop a healthy sleep routine. Going to bed at the same time every night, keeping your bedroom dark and cool, and putting away electronics an hour before bed can help you sleep better.

Controlling pain improves sleep, and improving sleep lessens pain. We can help if your pain is keeping you up at night. Call or book an appointment online today at the Orthopedic & Wellness office most convenient to you.