A new study indicates that frequently interrupted sleep can make
one more susceptible to pain by altering the body's natural
systems that regulate and control pain and can even lead to
spontaneous painful symptoms. The study included 32 healthy
women who were studied for seven nights. The women were assigned
to one of three groups: a control group that slept undisturbed;
a group that was woken up eight times during the night;and a
third group that went to bed later than usual. On the sixth
night, the women in the latter two groups underwent 36 hours of
total sleep deprivation, followed by an 11-hour recovery sleep.
During the study, researchers tested the women's pain thresholds
and pain inhibition. The women in the group that had been woken
up eight times during the night showed an increase in
spontaneous pain, while those in the other two groups did not,
showing that disrupted sleep impairs natural pain control
mechanisms that are thought to play a key role in the
development, maintenance, and exacerbation