Sleep is a natural pain reliever

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A good night's sleep is a natural painkiller, and a night's sleep loss increases the pain, especially when you get sick, according to a recent US study.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of California, United States, and published their findings in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

A national opinion poll of the American Sleep Foundation in 2015 found that two patients with chronic pain suffered from sleep disorders.

The researchers explained that when we feel pain, we usually have trouble sleeping, but how does sleep weakness affect the feeling of pain?

The researchers first answered this question by identifying brain dysfunctions when sleep deprivation could intensify and prolong the agony caused by illness and injury.

To achieve the results, researchers tracked 230 adults of all ages and asked participants to report their night hours and daily pain levels in a few days.

The results showed that even minor changes in sleep and waking patterns were badociated with changes in pain sensitivity.

Patients with different pain levels, the researchers began to record the main pain threshold of each participant after a good night's sleep and repeated it after not having enough sleep or taken sleep by exposing the low of the leg at temperatures of about 111 degrees. Fahrenheit (44 ° C).

They then recorded their brain activity and their response to pain with the help of an MRI machine.

The researchers found that those who slept well enough at night felt pain at levels lower than those who slept less than 7 to 8 hours a night.

The researchers repeated the experiment, but with people deprived of sleep at night and compared them to people who slept well at night.

The researchers found that the vast majority of people without sleep reported feeling pain early, at around 107 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The results clearly show that even very slight changes in nighttime sleep have an obvious impact on the burden of pain the next day," said Matthew Walker, team leader.

"Sleep loss not only inflates areas of pain in the brain, but also removes the centers of natural pain in the brain."

"If sleep deprivation increases our sensitivity to pain, a good sleep is a natural pain reliever that can help relieve pain," Walker said.