On Monday, I looked at the many reasons why people with pain might have sleep problems. Today, let’s look at what you can do to help yourself get better sleep!
Fix What’s Causing Your Sleep Problems
For most people, poor sleep is due to several issues. If you have pain, any of these might make it difficult to get good sleep:
- pain
- decreased activity
- anxiety and worry
- depression
- sleep problems as part of your medical disorder
- medication
If you can, fix – or at least improve – these issues. Of course, some you might not be able to change. For example, you may not be able to eliminate pain. But can you slightly improve it? Maybe change when you take medication, so you’re taking more at night… or do a relaxation exercise or take a bath before sleep… or see if there’s an equally effective medication that’s more sedating than 1 you already take.
What Else Can You Do?
For everyone with sleep problems, here’s some guidance to help you get more Z’s.
Thanks to Joi at Flickr for the photo. A very funny, clever Grand Rounds (a medical-blog carnival) is posted at Musings of a Distractible Mind.
3 responses so far ↓
Esther // Nov 12, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I have to kick my dog off the bed in order to get a good night’s sleep. It’s she who gets a better night’s sleep if she’s in my bed.
How to Cope with Pain // Nov 12, 2008 at 8:12 pm
That must be your dog in the picture above!
Tim // Nov 20, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Interesting topic. A lot of information has come out in recent times to link conditions for which inexplicable pain is present with sleep disturbances. With fibromyalgia, for instance, the thinking is that a failure to achieve deep levels of sleep interferes with the body’s ability to restore and repair itself, which results in heightened sensations of pain.
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