SWEET DREAMS: Five Things That Might Just Transform Your Sleep Game
Sleep is something of a rare and precious commodity when you live with chronic pain. Pain, and the anxiety and stress that often accompanies it, is a killer when it comes to getting enough sleep, and not getting our full quota of restorative rest affects our mind and body in ways that carry over into our daily life - not only does it make it more difficult to manage our pain, lack of sleep can actually increase our pain. It impacts every aspect of our life — our physical and mental health, our work, our confidence, and our relationships. The opposite is also true - when we get our sleep back, we often get our life back too. Sleep can transform our wellbeing.
SILENT NIGHT: Five Sleep Myths That Could Disrupt Your Festive Rest
Sleep is a vital weapon in the fight against pain, but it can be a struggle to get enough of it - pain leads to difficulty sleeping, and lack of sleep makes pain worse so it can become a cruel loop of sleeplessness and pain. A poor night’s sleep will leave us feeling not only tired and irritable but will also have long-term effects on our health. And worse still, not only does sleep deprivation increase our risk of developing health issues, it also reduces our body’s ability to cope with them. Pain can feel a lot worse after a sleepless night, which in turn can lead to raised stress levels and then we are caught in that old ‘pain - overwhelm - stress - more pain’ cycle.
So what steps can we take to limit the havoc that the festive season will most definitely inflict on our sleep?