I received this question from a reader, Migraine Chick:

Have you ever come across people having sleep disorders because of chronic pain?  I’ve been having problems with “sleep paralysis” when I’m home sick and trying to sleep with my migraines.  I was just wondering if this is a common thing for chronic pain people and what are some ways to deal with it.

As you might imagine, sleep difficulties unfortunately often go along with chronic pain.  Even in people without pain, occasional sleep problems are common – 75% of people report occasional sleep problems.  But for people with chronic pain, sleep problems can be worse, for reasons which include…

1. Pain

Falling asleep can be difficult because pain keeps you awake, or pain can wake you up in the middle of the night.

2. Decreased activity

If you aren’t able to do very much during the day, you might not be tired as night.

3. Anxiety and worry

These 2 notorious culprits can make falling asleep difficult if you worry about things when your head hits the pillow.  Or, if you wake up during the night, you might start worrying about things and not be able to get back to sleep.  Things unfortunately often look worse in the wee hours of the morning.  You might wake up earlier than you’d like to and not be able to fall back to sleep.

4. Depression

This often accompanies anxiety and worry.  And actually, one of the symptoms we look for to diagnose depression is sleep problems, especially waking up earlier than you’d like.  We call this “early morning awakening.”

5. Sleep problems as part of your medical disorder

For example, difficulty sleeping or sleep that doesn’t refresh you (“non-restorative sleep”) is part of the disease of fibromyalgia.

6. Medication

Although most of the medications that are used to treat chronic pain are sedating, a few can cause sleep problems.

“Sleep paralysis,” a condition in which you wake up but can’t move your muscles, can last from a few seconds to minutes.  In normal REM (dreaming) sleep, our muscles are made not to work so we don’t act out our dreams.  Normally, this “paralysis” ends before we wake up.  But in sleep paralysis, there’s a glitch in this arrangement.  Your brain awakes from a REM state, but the body paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move.

I’m not aware of a specific connection between sleep paralysis and migraines or pain.  However, sleep paralysis is thought to be related to irregular sleeping schedules, including naps, sleeping in, and sleep deprivation, as well as increased stress.  Unfortunately these are common in pain, so it may be an indirect relationship.

Stay tuned…  On Wednesday, I’ll review how to get better sleep.

Have a question or topic you’d like to see addressed here at How to Cope with Pain?  Send it in here.