Sleep and Pain: Friend or Foe?

Depending on the condition, over 75% of individuals who experience chronic pain also experience disrupted sleep due to both direct factors (pain itself) and indirect factors (decreased activity, increased muscle tension, heightened stress). Conversely, up to 50% of individuals who seek help for sleep problems also have chronic pain. Research has shown that nonpharmacologic treatments are highly effective for chronic pain and insomnia. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), an empirically validated intervention, is among the most successful and widely used of these treatments. This presentation will review recent research on the bidirectional relationship between sleep and pain, as well as effective interventions for treating insomnia and chronic pain that go beyond basic sleep hygiene or use of pharmaceutical sleep aids. It will introduce approaches for combining CBT protocols to treat concomitant chronic pain and insomnia, addressing the limitations of these combined approaches, and offering a brief overview of the literature regarding circadian rhythmicity of sleep and pain. (Recorded at PAINWeek 2018)