The effects of sleep deprivation on pain inhibition and spontaneous pain in women
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The researchers experimentally messed with the sleep of 32 women, and found that they were significantly more pain-sensitive, although in that case the effect was caused by sleep discontinuity, not deprivation alone (most insomniacs face both problems).
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
Impaired central pain modulation is implicated in the pathophysiology of chronic pain. In this controlled experiment, we evaluated whether partial sleep loss altered endogenous pain inhibition and reports of spontaneous pain. Thirty-two healthy females were studied polysomnographically for 7 nights. On Nights 1-2 (Baseline), subjects slept undisturbed for 8 hours. After Night 2, subjects were randomized to Control (N = 12), Forced Awakening (FA, N = 10), or Restricted Sleep Opportunity (RSO, N = 10) conditions. Controls continued to sleep undisturbed. FA underwent 8 forced awakenings (one per hour) on Nights 3-5. RSO subjects were yoked to FA on total sleep time (TST), receiving partial sleep deprivation by delayed bedtime. On Night 6, both FA & RSO underwent 36 hours total sleep deprivation (TSD), followed by 11-hour recovery sleep (Night 7). Subjects completed twice-daily psychophysical assessments of mechanical pain thresholds and pain inhibition (Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Controls), via use of a conditioning stimulus (i.e., cold pressor) paradigm. FA and RSO demonstrated 50% reductions in total sleep time and increases in nonpainful somatic symptoms during partial sleep deprivation. While sleep deprivation had no effect on pain thresholds, during partial sleep deprivation the FA group demonstrated a significant loss of pain inhibition and an increase in spontaneous pain; neither of the other 2 groups showed changes in pain inhibition or spontaneous pain during partial sleep deprivation. These data suggest that sleep continuity disturbance, but not simple sleep restriction, impairs endogenous pain-inhibitory function and increases spontaneous pain, supporting a possible pathophysiologic role of sleep disturbance in chronic pain.
related content
One article on PainScience.com cites Smith 2007 as a source:
- PS Insomnia Until it Hurts — The role of sleep deprivation in chronic pain, especially muscle pain
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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- Agreement of self-reported items and clinically assessed nerve root involvement (or sciatica) in a primary care setting. Konstantinou 2012 Eur Spine J.
- Effect of NSAIDs on Recovery From Acute Skeletal Muscle Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Morelli 2017 Am J Sports Med.