Sleep is important for everyone because when you don’t sleep enough, it increases your risk of illnesses such as heart disease, and you aren’t as productive because our bodies need sleep to function optimally. When you sleep enough, it can improve and prevent pain levels from getting to a point where it is unbearable, but when you live with pain, sleeping enough can be a struggle. Insomnia is a common problem amongst people with chronic pain because even if you take medication to help you sleep, sometimes the pain keeps you up, and it doesn’t matter how many meds you are taking. Sleep is even more important for people who live with pain because our bodies are constantly fighting pain, and often we need more sleep than someone without pain, but getting enough sleep is not as simple as going to bed early, and a lot of the time, you do that and are still sleep deprived because fatigue from pain is a different kind of tired. How can you possibly get enough sleep when you live with agonizing pain? In this post, I am going to talk about a few things that have helped me improve my sleep while living with pain.
Talk to your doctor about a sleep aide- Over-the-counter sleep aides such as Melatonin can be a great option for people who don’t live with chronic pain, but when you live with agonizing pain, over-the-counter remedies are often not strong enough to help you fall and stay asleep. Before I started taking a preventative for migraine pain relief, I tried taking Melatonin to improve my sleep, but it did nothing for me, even after I doubled the dose, because these remedies are often designed for people who don’t have medical conditions that cause severe pain. Sleep issues are common for people who live with migraine because if the pain doesn’t prevent you from falling asleep, it often wakes you up, and you may only get three hours of sleep. When my pain is low, I get a decent amount of sleep, but on days it’s not, I sleep terribly, and if it wasn’t for my prescription-strength sleep aide, I would be a very sleep-deprived girl. If you are struggling to fall asleep, I always encourage people to try over-the-counter remedies first because prescription-strength medication often causes nasty side effects and is not always necessary. If over-the-counter remedies are not working, there is no shame in talking to your doctor about a sleep aid because sometimes it’s the only way you will get some sleep. Sleep is important for improving your pain, and sometimes prescription-strength medication is the only way you are going to do that.
Try using essential oils- When you are trying to fall asleep and you aren’t tired, it sometimes can take three times as long if you aren’t getting your body into a relaxing state and are doing things that keep you awake. If I have been struggling to sleep for hours, sometimes I will use essential oils such as Eucalyptus and Lavender because although essential oils don’t take away severe pain that is keeping me up, these types of oils often help promote sleep. If I were trying to fall asleep, I would never use peppermint oil because, although it can help prevent headaches when used regularly, it can keep you more alert. Essential oils might not help you stay asleep because when you have severe pain, sometimes you just have to accept the fact that you are going to sometimes lose sleep, but it’s a good thing to add to your sleep regimen. There are a lot of health benefits to essential oils, and you don’t need to live with chronic pain to benefit from them. The only time I would recommend people not use them is if you are pregnant or the smell keeps you awake and worsens your sleep. Make sure that your essential oils are in a diffuser and that you aren’t consuming them, because essential oils are not meant to be consumed and are toxic when ingested.
Take a look at your diet– When it comes to pain and sleep, a lot of people think that the solution to improve their pain is to take more medication. Medication can help improve your pain but something that a lot of people tend to overlook is your diet. Diet plays a major role in your sleep, and doctors need to be putting more emphasis on the benefits of a healthy diet for better sleep because people often think the solution to better pain levels is more meds. When you eat a meal, ask yourself, “How did this meal make me feel?” If you feel terrible after eating dairy, it might be a sign that your body doesn’t process it well and you need to cut it out completely or reduce your intake. I still struggle with sleep, and there is nothing I can do to change it, but I don’t struggle as much since improving my diet, because nutrition plays a major role.
Is your medication causing poor sleep- Medication is supposed to help improve your pain and help you sleep better but if you aren’t on the right medication, sometimes it keeps you awake. When I was taking seizure medication that I didn’t truly need, I had terrible sleep and slept about four hours a day for years because that medication was causing my heart to race and waking me up out of dead sleep. It wasn’t until I stopped taking that medication that I started to feel better and realized that my medication was a major contributing factor to my poor sleep. Some days your medication is not going to be as effective, and that is normal, but it is a red flag if severe insomnia is a daily occurrence, and you can never get decent sleep. It is so important to pay attention to how your medication is making you feel because if it is causing you to become ill, like mine was, you might want to talk to your doctor about that. Medication sometimes will cause side effects, and sometimes you just have to learn to live with it, but it shouldn’t cause you to sleep so little every single night that it makes you unwell. If you are taking medication and struggling with sleep, you should always consider the fact that your medication is to blame.
Read a book before bed- When you are trying to fall asleep it’s important that you do things such as reading that help promote sleep and keep you relaxed, .When you do activities like watching TV a lot of the time, it keeps you more alert and you stay up longer than you would have. An hour or two before bed, try doing things that can help you wind down because it will help you get to sleep faster.
Try and go to bed early– Sleep can be difficult when you live with pain because you aren’t in complete control of your pain levels. Most days, my pain will wake me up around six or seven every morning, regardless of what time I went to bed, which means I have to be smart about my sleep schedule and go to bed at a decent hour. If I wanted to, I could stay up late every night because I have no job to go to, but I try to go to bed early, knowing that I will probably be up early. I still sometimes struggle with insomnia even when I go to bed early, but if you make a habit of going to bed at a decent hour, you increase the chances of getting a little more sleep than you would have if you stayed up late. There are days I do sleep in late, but I still go to bed early because you never know how much pain is going to affect your sleep.
Invest in comfortable bedding- It is difficult to fall asleep when you are sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress that gives you back pain. Disabled people can’t always afford to buy a new mattress because we don’t always make a lot, and that is okay, but I can’t stress enough how important comfortable bedding is for improved sleep. Invest in a new mattress or get some more pillows if you can’t afford that, because bedding that is somewhat comfortable will improve your sleep drastically.
Experiment with different sleep positions- It is more difficult to fall asleep when you live with chronic pain, and sometimes changing your sleep position can help improve your sleep. Do you normally sleep on your left side? If you aren’t sleeping well, maybe you might want to try lying on your right side or on your back. Changing your sleep position can sometimes put less pressure on areas where you have pain, which will improve your sleep.
Sleep is so important for your health, but it is difficult for people who live with pain because, despite what some people believe, medication does not fix your sleep issues, and we need real solutions for pain. There are a lot of ways you can improve your sleep, and I did not mention every possible sleep remedy because different things work for everyone. You will not cure chronic pain by sleeping more, but you can prevent some flares by getting as much sleep as you can and limiting social use before bed to help you sleep better. Sleep deprivation has a lot of negative health outcomes because it puts a lot of stress on your body, and it’s so important that you find something that works for you most of the time. It is important that you do whatever it takes to improve your sleep, and there is no shame if you need medication. Severe insomnia can put. you at a higher risk for health issues, and it’s so important that you sleep enough. How do you improve your sleep while living with pain? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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