Research links insomnia and back pain

[Ellen]

Interesting study moves closer to supporting psychophysiological cause of back pain. Summary of study:

Insomnia can predict the appearance of back pain in adults, researchers suggest. Back pain is a very common ailment: Between 60% to 80% of the adult population will suffer from it at some point in their lives. Moreover, back pain is the single most costly condition in terms of total workers' compensation costs. The reasons for back pain are varied, though experts say that some 90% of those suffering from it have no identifiable cause.

Conclusion:

The reason for this is not yet known, but it's possible that the link between the two conditions stems from a third biological factor that we haven't yet succeeded in identifying," they continued. "One possible link is stress; people suffering from insomnia generally describe their lives as stressful, so it's almost certain that they would suffer from chronic restlessness that will increase muscle tension and reduce the number of micro-pauses in muscle activity, which leads to back pain."


http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...ind_brain+(Mind+&+Brain+News+--+ScienceDaily)

 

[mike2014]

Fantastic, thanks for posting this.

 

[IrishSceptic]

Interesting research here also, thought I'd put in this thread as it looks at 'perfectionism and maladpative coping styles' in Chronic fatigue syndrome

http://www.researchgate.net/publica...me_fibromyalgiaarthritis_and_healthy_controls

article where I first read the reference. this is essentially confirming

http://www.sciencecodex.com/perfectionism_may_be_the_problem_behind_chronic_fatigue_syndrome-147467

 

[Forest]

It's interesting that you posted about chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia in this same thread, @IrishSceptic, as I believe that both conditions are tied to sleep disturbances.

Connecting insomnia and back pain reminds me of David Hanscom's work. As you may know, Dr. Hanscom is a mindbody author who recovered from his own TMS and heavily emphasizes the importance of sleep in his work. I never took his emphasis on sleep very seriously, but this study seems to support his emphasis on it.

As a side note, I track estimated Amazon sales data for mindbody books, and I've been amazed at how well Dr. Hanscom's books have been doing recently:
http://www.novelrank.com/user/forestfortreestms
Normally, no author authors in our tradition ever sell more than any of Dr. Sarno's main 3 books, but Hanscom's book seems to currently be outselling all of Dr. Sarno's books except Healing Back Pain. Dr. Hanscom is tremendously passionate about his mindbody work and I suspect he is paying for a PR representative out of his own pocket, so it's possible that his books won't do as well going forward and things will return to normal. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see.

Not something I'd lose sleep over, though.