A Stealth Sleep Thief

The National Sleep Foundation’s “2015 Sleep in America® Poll” reports that pain joins two related concerns – stress and poor health – as key correlates of shorter sleep durations and worse sleep quality. The study finds that 21% of Americans experience chronic pain and 36% have had acute pain in the past week.  These result in a gap between the amount of sleep Americans say they need and the amount they’re getting – an average 42 minute sleep debt for those with chronic pain and 14 minutes for those who’ve suffered from acute pain in the past week. Those with acute or chronic pain are more likely to have sleep problems impact their daily lives. Among people who’ve had sleep difficulties in the past week, more than half of those with chronic pain say those difficulties interfered with their work.  People with pain are also far more apt than others to report that lack of sleep interferes with their mood, activities, relationships and enjoyment of life overall.  The Poll’s Summary of Findings recommends that those with pain issues make sleep a priority:  “the subjects who reported greater motivation for good sleep also reported better health: 56% of those who were highly motivated reported very good or excellent general health compared with 42% of those who were not that motivated or not at all motivated.”