How to Sleep Well Despite Chronic Pain

As many as twenty percent of Americans suffer from sleep interruptions as a result of chronic pain. Any number of common medical conditions or injuries can cause that pain, but they all tend to make it harder to not only fall asleep, but also stay sleeping so we can get effective sleep from Rapid Eye Movement sleep periods. While it seems like a minor factor when compared to a major injury or chronic painful illness, ensuring you stay well rested is a very important part of the healing process.

Setting regular sleep habits can help tremendously. Maintaining a routine sleep schedule helps train your body to turn off and get rest with less mental effort on your part. Various meditative efforts, such as focused breathing or mental centering, can help distract your mind and make sleep come easier. The positions you sleep in will also play a big role in how easily sleep comes, or how likely it is you’ll awaken due to discomfort. Finding comfortable positions that work for you, and maintain them.

Finally, pay attention to the pain management your doctor has prescribed. If you’ve been given medication, adjust the schedule when you take it to coincide with bedtime so the medication is active in your body when you most need to avoid the distraction of discomfort.

Key Points:

  • 1You should try to relax yourself with peaceful images, or do some deep breathing.
  • 2You should avoid any distractions like light, loud noises, and your smartphone.
  • 3You should stay on a regular sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same time.


Whether it’s from a bad back, arthritis, or headaches, chronic pain puts you in double jeopardy: the pain robs you of restful sleep and makes you more fatigued, and thus more sensitive to pain.
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Written by HealthStatus
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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