How to Improve Sleep When You Deal With Chronic Pain

If you deal with chronic pain, you know how important sleep can be to helping you feel better. 

When you get a poor night’s sleep, your symptoms might feel worse. You might have a harder time regulating your emotions, and find it harder to complete everyday tasks. Improving sleep quality is often a process of trial and error, but it can be an especially important part of the chronic pain toolkit. 

Why is sleep so important?

Sleep is one of our basic biological functions, and we can’t survive without it. Sleep is essential to our physical and mental functioning. Sleep allows our bodies time to repair and to reset for the next day, and can even support our immune functioning. 

Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to serious health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. In addition, when you don’t get enough sleep, it can be harder to think clearly and to do the everyday things that are required of you. 

Chronic pain impacts many areas of life, and sleep is no exception. Chronic pain can make it harder to get comfortable enough to fall asleep, and pain can wake you up during the night, reducing the amount of sleep you get.

If you’re dealing with chronic pain, a good night’s sleep might feel impossible. Here are some things to try to improve your sleep when you deal with chronic pain: 

Talk to your doctor about sleep 

Sleep is a critical bodily function, and when you have sleep issues it’s best to make your doctor aware. That might seem overwhelming, especially as someone who deals with chronic pain and has to deal with many medical providers already. There are some medical interventions that can make sleep easier, though, so it’s important to bring it up with your primary care physician to see if there are any options that can help you.

For example, sleep apnea can make it harder to sleep deeply, and wearing a CPAP machine while you sleep can help you sleep more deeply. Get a sleep study done if possible. You can do sleep studies from home a lot of the time now. They may also be able to help you find a medication that works for you to help you sleep better. 

Use light filter settings on your devices

There’s a lot of advice out there about not using screens in the evening because of the exposure to blue light that interrupts sleep. However, it’s much easier said than done to put down your devices after a certain time. Has anyone ever actually stopped using their phone before bed? Sometimes that’s not reasonable. 

If you are looking at your phone or at a device before bed, try using the built in color filters that most devices have to help block out the blue light. You can also try wearing blue light blocking glasses if you don’t have a filter on your device. 

Develop a wind down routine 

Developing a routine that signals to your brain that it’s time to wind down can be helpful in improving your sleep. See how it feels to stretch, meditate, journal, or read as you wind down before bed. 

If you’re able to, taking a hot bath with epsom salts can help you become more sleepy and help with winding down. If you don’t have a tub, try soaking your feet in some warm water with epsom salts to help you begin to wind down. You can also try drinking a warm beverage, like tea (make sure to choose a kind of tea that doesn’t have caffeine) to help signal to your brain that it’s time for sleep. 

Try to stick to a general bedtime

Another way to help signal to yourself that it’s time to sleep is to stick to a specific bedtime. It can be hard to go to sleep at the same time every night when your symptoms are causing you pain, but over time it gets easier. It’s going to be hard to sleep when your brain is wired, so it might take some time to get to a bedtime that works for you. Try shifting things by 5 minutes at a time and work toward the time you’d ideally like to go to sleep. 

It’s also important to be kind to yourself when you can’t stick to that bedtime. Being hard on yourself isn’t going to make it any easier to sleep. 

Use pillows to help support your body

Waking up feeling worse than when you went to sleep isn’t a fun experience. Sometimes movement during sleep can help contribute to pain during the day. Try using pillows to help support you as you sleep. 

Consider using a neck pillow for neck pain or a body pillow to help keep yourself propped up in a way that won’t increase your pain. Some people also sleep with a heating pad or an electric blanket on the parts of their body that tend to cause pain. Some of them have timers so you can make sure it keeps you warm all night. 

Set up your sleeping place for success

Studies show that sleeping in a cooler room can help with getting deeper sleep, so try sleeping with your thermostat turned down a bit lower or with a fan on you. You can also try using white noise, either from a fan or a noise machine, to help create an environment where you can sleep. 

Something else that might help is to be able to turn your electronics or lights on and off from your phone or using a remote. That way, when you’re comfy in bed, you don’t have to get back up to turn off the lights. 

Use your pain relief toolkit

When you’re dealing with chronic pain, sometimes you need to try multiple ways to manage it so you can make it through the day and night. 

As someone with chronic pain, you probably have your go-to ways to manage your pain, like using a TENs unit or using a pain relief gel. See what you have on hand that can help make you more comfortable through the night. 

Are you looking for more support as you deal with chronic pain? Our therapists can help. We have therapists who can support you with chronic illness, chronic pain, &  medical stressors. Contact us today to make an appointment! 

6 Tips to Help Improve Your Sleep

Do you struggle with sleep? From creating a routine to settling in, to staying soundly asleep until morning, sleep issues are extremely common. It seems like we all need a little support figuring out works! But our health, our mood, and our energy levels are all improved when we get the right amount of deep, restful sleep, so it’s important to find a routine that works for you! So today we’re going over 6 tips to help improve your sleep: 

Set a “bedtime warning” alarm: 

By this, I don’t mean an alarm that means “get in bed now.” Instead, give yourself a built in buffer! Decide around what time you’d like to be in bed at night. Let’s say it’s 10:30pm. If you want to be in bed by around 10:30pm every night, set up a daily alarm on your phone for around 9:30pm. That will be your signal that you have about an hour until “bedtime.” In that time you can wrap up anything that needs to be done, and engage in whatever nighttime routine you have. That way you’re not feeling the pressure every night when you realize “oh no it’s 10:30, I wanted to be in bed by now!” And it will create a routine your body can learn to respond to: when you hear the alarm and start your routine–even if it varies a little day to day–your body will get used to getting into “bedtime mode” and it can help you transition into sleep easier. 

Wear yourself out a little–gently: 

A small amount of gentle movement right before bed is a great way to let your body know “okay! We’re going to sleep now!” It helps to both tire your body out a bit, as well as refocus your energy on your physical body & feelings, instead of any racing thoughts you may have in your head. Some exercise will energize you, however, so stick to something slow and gentle like stretching or yoga. Keep a yoga mat by your bed, do a few gentle moves, maybe repeat them for a few cycles, and then hop right into bed. Find the balance that works best for you; remember the point is to get your body ready to rest, as well as quieting your mind so it doesn’t keep you up. If you’re running on a treadmill and hopping off more energized than before, that is not going to help your sleep! 

Eliminate screens at night: 

This is probably one you’ve heard before–but that’s because it’s true. The blue light in screens actually messes with your circadian rhythm, which of course then throws your sleeping patterns all out of whack! We don’t live in a world where we can really go days without screens–lots of us have to use them for work–but what we can do is  limit our exposure to them before bed. A good idea is to use that “bedtime warning” alarm as a marker that it’s time to put your computer away or turn your tv off or set down your phone. You could also ease into it and set a second alarm about a half hour later, and work your way up to an hour of no screen time before bed as you establish a routine. 

Increase bright light exposure during the daytime: 

On the opposite side of that, lots of exposure to bright natural light during the day helps to keep your circadian rhythm happy & healthy! (Just like it can do for you!) If you can, open blinds or windows to let as much natural light into your home or workspace as you can. If that isn’t a possibility, consider getting a lamp that is made to mimic the effects of natural light (sometimes called a SAD lamp). 

Consider your environment: 

What is your bedroom like? Are there things about it that constantly distract you from sleep? For example: is your bed near a window that lets too much light into your room? Or does the noise from outside the window bother you as you try to fall asleep? Do you find yourself not able to get comfortable because you’re too hot no matter your pajamas or what your home temperature is set to? Lots of these things feel out of our control but we can take time to find solutions, even if they are imperfect ones, because any improvement to our sleep is better than none!

To go along with these examples some things you could do are: 

• Move your bed to a different part of the room. Get away from the window if possible. 

• Get thick or blackout curtains to block the light from coming in the window. 

• Download a white noise app on your phone to play to cover the noises that come in from outside. 

• Get a fan on the lowest setting and set it next to your bed. Or look for sheets designed specifically for people who over heat while sleeping. (It’s a common problem!) 

Stay hydrated throughout the day: 

This one might not seem like it could affect your sleep but stay with me! If you are properly hydrating yourself throughout the day, you won’t get that rush of “I’m so thirsty!!” late at night which can both: 

1. Make it difficult for you to fall asleep if you don’t get something to drink, as you’ll be physically uncomfortable from being dehydrated. 

2. Make it so you’re waking up constantly to use the bathroom, since you drank your days worth of water right before bed. 

Use that alarm an hour before bed as a sort of “last call” while you’re getting used to staying hydrated throughout the day if you need to. When it goes off use it as a check: do I need something to drink? If so, get a quick glass of water. Then (hopefully!) you won’t need another drink before bed, and it won’t be keeping you awake. 

If you need more support, contact us today! Our therapists can help you find a mindful nighttime routine that works for you.