Insomnia and Chronic Pain

Someone recently contacted me to ask about how she can get involved in a sleep study to help with her insomnia and chronic pain. I thought I would share our Q&A; with everyone in case others are going through the same thing:

Q: How does one go about becoming a part of a sleep study? As a chronic pain sufferer, insomnia has plagued my life for the past 7 years. I would be very interested in your reply and I have ordered your book. I look forward to yet another approach, perhaps this will aid me!

A: First of all I want to thank you for your post. Chronic pain is an area that I have had some experience with in my clinical practice, and it is an exceptionally difficult area for sleep.

About 35-40% of those with pain issues actually have different brain waves associated with deep sleep than people without pain. The difference is that their deep sleep is lighter than others. It is called alpha delta sleep. This means more arousals, lighter sleep, and more difficulty staying asleep, for some.

Medications can be both helpful and harmful to sleep (both sleep meds and pain meds) and should be reviewed by your doctor. We have had luck with some insomnia meds (Ambien CR, klonipin, and I think Rozerem would work but I have no experience with it) but the program in my book, especially the 28 night program, should be an excellent adjunct to any formal diagnostic sleep study and therapy.

In addition you should know that many folks with pain also have an underlying sleep disorder and when we fix that the pain GETS BETTER!!!! Of course we cannot promise this, but it has happened on numerous occasions.

If you are looking to get a sleep study, based on pure insomnia most clinicians are not going to be favorable about this because insomniacs do not sleep, much less in a lab with 27 wires attached to their heads!

I would say for sure you should contact a sleep specialist (someone who is board certified in sleep medicine — I can help you find one if you need me to) and see where they want to help.

If you feel that there are other sufferers here please bring them into the conversation as well.

Dr. Mike PhD