Sleep Disturbance Increases Spontaneous Pain In Women

Sleep continuity disturbance impairs endogenous pain-inhibitory function and increases spontaneous pain in women. This supports a possible pathophysiologic role of sleep disturbance in chronic pain, according to a study published in the April 1st issue of the journal SLEEP.

The study, conducted by Michael T. Smith, PhD, and colleagues at John’s Hopkins University, focused on 32 healthy females, who were studied polysomnographically for seven nights.

On the first two nights, the subjects slept undisturbed for eight hours. Then, the women were assigned to one of three groups: “Control”, “Forced Awakening” (FA) and “Restricted Sleep Opportunity” (RSO).

From nights three-to-five, the “Control” group continued to sleep undisturbed, while the “Forced Awakening” group underwent eight forced awakenings, one per hour, and the “Restricted Sleep Opportunity” group received partial sleep deprivation by delayed bedtime. On night six, both the FA and RSO groups underwent 36 hours of total sleep deprivation, followed by 11-hour recovery sleep.