Sleep Disorders Are Common And Can Lead To Serious Problems In Chronic Pain Management

Written By: Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II Date: April 27th, 2009. Topic: Member Blogs.

Someone undergoing long-term chronic pain management as I have knows that sometimes sleeping peacefully is only a dream. In fact, sleep disorders are one of the chief complaints from many of my patients the past 26 years. Unfortunately, many people turn to medications—either prescription or over the counter (OTC)—that can lead to serious problems.

Every month I post a new article to our websites Articles Page and if you would like to read this month’s posting Chronic Pain Management and the Role of Sleep Disturbances please Click Here. I’ve included a brief excerpt from that article below.

So what do you do when you live with chronic pain and need to sleep? Do you give in and use potentially dangerous sleep medications or just suffer? Most experts recommend practicing good sleep hygiene, along with understanding the cause of disturbed sleep patterns. Sleep hygiene looks to the habits, environmental factors, and practices that may influence the length and quality of your sleep. These include bedtime, nighttime rituals, and disruptions to one’s sleep. These are typically represented by simple guidelines meant to effectively promote a good night’s rest.

If sleep problems persist after implementing sleep hygiene practices, it may be time to seek medical help. But what are some examples of good sleep hygiene? Below is some information I found during my research for this article. If you want to learn more, please go to www.about.com website and type in “Sleep Hygiene.”

• Relax before bedtime
• Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, cool, and comfortable
• Make sleep a priority: don’t sacrifice sleep to do daytime activities
• Get up and go to bed at the same time every day, even on weekends
• Avoid caffeine and other stimulants
• Don’t smoke – in bed or at all
• Exercise every day, but avoid doing it 4 hours before bedtime
• Bedrooms are for sleeping and sex, not for watching television or doing work
• Don’t toss and turn
• Don’t take naps

If you’re working with people undergoing chronic pain management or if you are living with chronic pain yourself we have two Addiction-Free Pain Management®Trainings scheduled this Spring — one in Sacramento California in May and the one at Valley Forge Medical Center and Hospital in June. It’s not to late for people to sign up and in fact by mentioning this Blog I will make sure you get a $20 discount for either training. To get this discount you must call Ellen at (916) 575-9961 and ask her for the discount. Also, for these and other upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are living with chronic pain, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication or other mental health problem and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing your pain and medication effectively, please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.