The Link Between Poor Sleep and Chronic Pain After an Accident

Check out this go-to guide that explains the importance of sleep and pain recovery after a car accident.

Written by CrashMD staff

Suffering from the aftermath of a car accident can be negatively life changing. On top of the physical injury itself, pain symptoms can be felt throughout the body, and for longer than the standard period of recovery. For those who have been in a car accident and are now dealing with uncomfortable chronic pain symptoms, daily life can prove difficult. 

An often overlooked side effect and factor of chronic pain is sleep. Many people take sleep for granted, but when pain becomes part of the sleep routine, it can lead to poor sleep or even insomnia. Sleep and pain recovery come hand in hand, unfortunately. But how? Because poor sleep and chronic pain create a vicious cycle that just becomes worse without treatment. 

Acute pain after an accident disrupts sleep because the person can only focus on how uncomfortable they are. Then, when a person is tired, their sensitivity to pain becomes heightened, which increases their pain sensitivity, and most often turns their acute pain into chronic pain. So with more deep and intense pain comes worsened sleep patterns, and repeat. 

The entire reason why this happens is because sleep deprivation impacts the central nervous system, which leads to heightened pain perception. If you think about it, everything seems worse when you’re tired. It’s difficult to feel positive about anything when the only thing you want to do is close your eyes and sleep. The body even uses sleep to heal itself, so when you’re not sleeping well, it elongates your healing process. 

If you are suffering from both poor sleep and chronic pain, know that there is hope to improve sleep after an accident injury. The best way to stop the painful sleepy cycle is to partner with a trained pain management specialist who can recommend the best ways to help you get the comfortable rest you need. 

Poor Sleep and Chronic Pain Connection

Overall, lack of sleep can lead to a suppressed or weakened immune system, which can open the door to the person suffering from additional complications, such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular issues. Poor sleep is also directly correlated with chronic pain, as it makes it more difficult for the person to manage their pain. 

Some of the main car accident injuries that could lead to sleep issues include whiplash, concussions, broken bones and soft tissue injuries. These can all lead to not only a difficulty sleeping but also an inability to sleep. 

The reasons why poor sleep and chronic pain are linked include: 

• Mental health issues: stress, anxiety and depression play a crucial role in sleep disturbances and is yet another vicious cycle. When a person is experiencing chronic pain with seemingly no end in sight, they can become depressed, anxious about leaving the house, worry about living with pain forever, and more. This leads to heightened pain sensitivity, which makes their chronic pain worse and their sleep patterns worse.  
• Physical pain: The older a person gets, the more they need to focus on their nighttime routine to be able to fall asleep comfortably. This can include the right pillow, the right bedroom temperature, the right mattress, and more. So when acute or chronic pain are factors, sleeping is just that much harder. If you have back pain, you might not be able to lie down comfortably. Or if your pain is in your hip, ankle or head, you might not be able to sleep on your side like you prefer.
• Central sensitization: this condition occurs when the brain becomes more sensitive to pain signals, which happens as a direct result of sleep being disrupted. This causes a person to experience pain from stimuli that would otherwise not be painful, such as the feeling of clothes touching their skin or a handshake. 
• Neurotransmitter imbalance: neurotransmitters play an important and complex role in regulating sleep and wakefulness. While some neurotransmitters promote sleep, others keep the brain active, so an imbalance of this delicate system can lead to sleep deprivation and subsequent pain sensitivity. 

Who knew! We all knew that sleep was important to help us perform our best during the daytime, but other than the occasional sleepless night here and there, sleep should be standard – this is, unless you are suffering from chronic pain symptoms. 

How Poor Sleep Worsens Chronic Pain

While it’s clear that poor sleep can enhance chronic pain symptoms, and vice versa, the personal effect on each person can vary. Some patients might be able to function with less sleep, or with a lower quality of sleep, while others need their standard eight hours of actual sleep with lots of REM sleep. Regardless of how pain changes your sleep patterns, there are some common denominators that patients who have chronic pain and subsequent poor sleep can expect to experience: 

• Mood disturbances: lack of sleep for people who are suffering from chronic pain can lead to mood disorders such as depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicide. On top of that, being tired can heighten pain perception, which can lead to worsened pain symptoms. 
• Reduced pain tolerance: poor sleep can lower the body’s ability to tolerate pain, as well as any neurological issues that the person suffered as the result of the car accident. This can lead to heightened sensitivity that makes even minor aches feel more painful, such as a light scrape or bruise. 
• Inability to heal: sleep is the best time for our body to regenerate and heal, and when a person isn’t sleeping well, their body isn’t able to properly and fully heal, especially considering tissue repair. This can lead to a prolonged recovery period that leads to prolonged pain symptoms. 
• Headaches: persistent headaches or chronic migraines can prevent a person from both falling asleep and staying asleep
• Difficulty relaxing muscles: nerve damage, injured bones or whiplash can all lead to the inability of muscles to relax. If muscles tense up or strain during the night, this could prevent the person from staying asleep or finding a comfortable sleeping position in the first place. 

Since there are so many reasons why a person should be getting proper sleep, it seems like a no brainer. Sure, but not the case when someone is dealing with constant and deep pain that they are working to resolve. There are a lot of factors that go into getting a good night’s sleep, and generally chronic pain isn’t one of them. Thankfully, partnering with a pain management specialist can help to improve sleep after an accident injury and get you back on the road to recovery, one night at a time. 

Ways to Improve Sleep with Chronic Pain

The best way to improve both your sleep patterns and your chronic pain symptoms is to partner with a skilled pain management specialist who can create a customized treatment plan to help you enjoy sleep and pain relief. They will perform a physical examination, review your medical and health history, and utilize diagnostic tools to get a clear picture of your chronic pain symptoms and how it’s affecting your sleep patterns. While treatment options vary from person to person depending on the individual circumstances, the most widely used sleep and pain recovery methods include: 

• RICE: rest, ice, compression and elevation can help to improve acute injury pain symptoms before they turn chronic, thereby reducing the chance of developing additional symptoms related to sleep
• Sleep schedule: prioritizing a sleep schedule includes creating and following an ideal sleep schedule that helps to optimize the sleep environment and set the patient up for sleep success
• Pain medication: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and anesthetic pain medication can help to reduce both pain and inflammation, which can help a person to more comfortably sleep. Additionally, if there are mental health issues involved, antidepressants can help a person to avoid depressive thoughts and subsequently alleviate pain symptoms. 
• Physical therapy: partnering with a trained physical therapist will help to exercise and strengthen the body with the goal to alleviate pain symptoms now and avoid pain symptoms or complications in the future
• Cognitive behavioral therapy: this method helps to provide patients with a way to actively manage and decrease their pain symptoms and associated challenges, both physically and emotionally 
• Stress reduction techniques: biofeedback, breathing techniques and meditation can all help the patient to personally address their pain symptoms and reduce their feelings of pain
• Therapy and/or counseling: seeking the help from a community of therapy or counseling groups can help to reduce stress and anxiety relating to the accident that in turn helps to alleviate pain symptoms

Seeking help from the right pain management specialist can help to reduce both the pain symptoms, but also the mental health issues (PTSD, anxiety, depression and phobias) that could exacerbate pain symptoms that could lead to poor or worsened sleep. 

If you were recently in a car accident and find that you are having a difficult time sleeping, please reach out to the CrashMD team today. Our team of expertly-trained pain management specialists can accurately diagnose and treat your injuries, and work together with you to manage your symptoms so that you can enjoy sleep. Dealing with pain symptoms is difficult enough, and there is no reason to make the symptoms worse, or the recovery period longer, with poor sleep. Please schedule an appointment today so that we can help you sleep tonight.