Sleeping with Pain, Stress and Anxiety

Getting a good night’s sleep is important. Sleep helps you stay healthy, promote healthy brain function and preserve your physical health.¹ However, stress and anxiety can impact how you feel in the morning, including contributing to depression which can make it difficult to fall asleep,² and can occur with or contribute to physical pain.³ Some people experience a cycle of pain, insomnia, anxiety, and depression.³ Sleeping poorly can impact how you feel in the morning including contributing to depression, which can increase your pain sensitivity.³ When you’re in pain, it’s harder to get a good night’s sleep.³ This continues the cycle of pain and sleeplessness.³ Learn more about the connection between pain, stress, anxiety and sleep and discover tips to help you fall asleep and stay asleep. 

How Does Pain Affect Sleep?

Pain reduces the duration of sleep and can cause you to wake up more frequently throughout the night.³ To get a good night’s sleep and feel well-rested in the morning, you must go through light sleep, slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.³ When sleep is interrupted, you’ll experience poorer sleep.³ Pain at night can keep you from falling asleep and some people experience pain while they are trying to sleep due to their sleeping position.³ For example, those with shoulder pain should not sleep on their side.³

Getting poor sleep quality and getting less sleep can also cause greater pain sensitivity in those with conditions such as osteoarthritis.³ Having trouble getting a good night’s sleep also gives you a higher chance of experiencing conditions like migraines.³ Luckily, getting a good night’s sleep may help mitigate pain.³

How Does Stress Affect Sleep?

If you can’t sleep due to stress, you’re not alone. When you sleep, you go through different sleep stages. Excess stress can affect these sleep stages, causing the duration of each sleep stage to change. Those with stress spend less time in deep sleep and can also experience REM disruptions while sleeping.² Stress can even contribute to short-term or long-term insomnia, a disorder that makes it difficult to sleep.² Getting the right amount of sleep each night can help relieve your stress.²

Stress can also cause extra muscle tension, leading to discomfort.² Muscle tension is caused by dilated blood vessels in the legs and arms.² The discomfort from muscle tension can contribute to long-term stress.²

With these tips for how to fix your sleep schedule in your arsenal, you can be well on your way to a good night’s sleep sooner than you think.

How Does Anxiety Affect Sleep?

Anxiety can keep you from falling asleep.⁴ This creates a cycle of insomnia and stress.⁴ Insomnia is a symptom of many anxiety disorders.⁴ Those who can’t sleep from anxiety are often kept awake at night thinking about their worries, and this mental hyperarousal can make it difficult to sleep.⁴ Anxiety can also cause nightmares, which can cause sleep disruptions and fear of falling asleep.⁴

How to Sleep When You’re in Pain and Have Related Stress and Anxiousness

If you can’t sleep due to pain it may contribute to associated stress and anxiety, speak to a doctor and follow these tips:^2,3,4

• Exercise during the week. Engaging in moderate exercise in the morning or afternoon can make it easier to fall asleep at night. Exercising too close to bedtime can make it harder to fall asleep.
• Avoid stimulants and alcohol before bed. Stimulants like caffeine and nicotine can make it harder to fall asleep. Alcohol can also reduce the quality of your sleep.
• Create a sleep schedule. Get up in the morning and go to bed at the same time each day. Make sure you commit to your sleep schedule during the weekends or when you’re traveling.
• Follow a routine. Create a bedtime routine that you can follow in exact order, like taking a shower, brushing your teeth, reading a book and then going to bed.
• Avoid blue light before bed. Devices like smartphones and computers emit blue light. This type of light can make it harder to sleep.
• Try mindfulness techniques. Pain can keep your nervous system aroused. Mindfulness techniques like deep breathing exercises or meditation can help you relax and cope with pain.
• Don’t stay in bed when you can’t sleep. If you’re stressed or in too much pain to sleep, leave your bedroom and try reading a book, or listening to relaxing music. You can go back to bed once you feel tired.
• Consider cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). If you experience anxiety, this type of talk therapy can reduce it and make it easier for you to fall asleep.
• Talk to a doctor. A doctor or mental health professional can help you with pain management and sleep.
• Try a pain reliever and sleep aid. Advil PM is a non-habit-forming pain reliever and sleep aid that delivers fast pain relief. It gets you to sleep quickly so you can sleep the whole night and feel rested the next morning.

Try Advil PM to Help You Sleep When You’re in Pain

Diphenhydramine and ibuprofen are active ingredients in Advil PM that help you fall asleep and stay asleep and relieve your pain.⁵ Ibuprofen relieves pain at the site of inflammation.⁵ Advil PM is a non-habit-forming over-the-counter pain reliever, meaning you don’t need a prescription for it. Advil PM is available as a caplet, but you can also try Advil PM Liqui-Gels.  

Learn more about sleeping issues and get tips on how to wake up feeling refreshed. 

SOURCES

1. Why Is Sleep Important? NHLBI, NIH. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/why-sleep-important. Accessed 12/11/23.
2. Stress and Insomnia. Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/insomnia/stress-and-insomnia. Accessed 12/11/23.
3. Pain and Sleep. Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/pain-and-sleep. Accessed 12/11/23.
4. Anxiety and Sleep. Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/mental-health/anxiety-and-sleep. Accessed 12/11/23.
5. Diphenhydramine And Ibuprofen (Oral Route). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/diphenhydramine-and-ibuprofen-oral-route/description/drg-20528282. Accessed 12/11/23.