Pain can prevent you from sleeping, which is counterproductive because sleep helps you heal. Often, it is hard to sleep because of pain, but then the pain is worse after not sleeping. It can seem hopeless but the good news is that there are ways to improve sleep despite your pain

Sleep and Chronic Pain

While we sleep, our bodies heal. This occurs both mentally and physically. Getting poor sleep can make pain worse during the day. It can also impact our mood, making it more difficult to cope.

Lying awake at night can be a negative experience. If you lay awake night after night, odds are you’re going to start resenting bedtime. This can become a routine: your brain begins to associate the bed and bedtime with being awake and upset.

However, you can break out of this routine. You can retrain yourself to sleep in your bed at the right time. This is called Stimulus Control.

Stimulus Control

You can tell your brain that the bed is where you sleep by strengthening the association between sleep and the bed. For this to work, you must refrain from doing anything not sleep-related in bed (other than sexual activity). Do not sleep on the couch or anywhere other than your bed.

Only go to bed when you feel sleepy. This means when your eyelids are drooping. It’s important to note that being sleepy and tired are different. If you can’t sleep after about 20 minutes, get out of the bed. Only return to the bed when you’re sleepy and try not to nap during the day.

Another important part of stimulus control is waking up at the same time every day. Even if you didn’t get a good night’s sleep, wake up at the same time. This habit begins to train your circadian rhythm. As a result, you may start getting sleepy at a consistent time each night. 

Sleep Hygiene

There are certain environments and behaviours that support sleep. This is called Sleep Hygiene.

Creating a good sleep environment:

Firstly, make your room as quiet as possible. Even slight noises can disrupt sleep.

Secondly, make your room dark at night but bright in the morning. This helps your circadian rhythm sync up with the light and dark cycles of the day. Dark curtains can block out the sunshine in the morning, making it harder to wake up.

Lastly, the room temperature should be 60-76˚F. A cooler room is better for sleep as your body temperature naturally drops when you sleep. Having a cool room helps this process.

Engaging in health nighttime habits:

Do not stare at your phone in bed. The light can trick your brain into thinking it is day. Also, don’t check the time if you can’t sleep. It will make you worry about how many hours you’re getting.

Avoid problem solving while you’re trying to sleep. It’s normal for worries to pop up when you’re not sleeping; however, try not to mull over these problems during this time. It will spiral you into thinking about something embarrassing from ten years ago. To combat this, set a time the next day to deal with any pressing issues.

Additionally, you can use the relaxation techniques from the last lesson to help you relax. Make it a part of your bedtime routine.

Practice 

To help you get better sleep, we’ve included a Sleep Hygiene Checklist. This worksheet is made to review before bed to ensure your sleep hygiene is good. There is also a reflection question to ask how you can improve your sleep hygiene the following night.

Additionally, we’ve included a Sleep Diary. This dairy allows you to track when you’re sleeping, how many times you wake up, and several other factors that may affect your sleep. Keeping track of this can help you identify if there are any factors that are negatively or positively affecting the quality of your sleep. We’ve also included a section where you can record your pain levels. This allows you to see if your sleep quality is affecting your pain or not. Fill this diary out in the morning. There is space for three days, but you can repeat this diary as many times as you want.

Reflect

Reflect on how your pain and sleep interact. Do you have any tricks that help you sleep? What is your bedtime routine? Are there any sleep hygiene factors that you can’t sleep without? What can you change about your sleep habits to make sleeping easier?

In the next lesson, you will learn how to reframe your thinking about engaging in your favorite activities.

To move to the next lesson, take the quiz first.

If the content about sleep interests you, we also offer an entire course called Sleep and Chronic Pain. It delves much deeper into how chronic pain and sleep are interconnected. Additionally, there are many more techniques and lifestyle changes that can support better sleep outlined in the course. You can enroll anytime.