Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Poor sleep at night, more pain the next day
After one night of inadequate sleep, brain activity ramps up in pain-sensing regions while activity is scaled back in areas responsible for modulating how we perceive painful stimuli. This finding, published in JNeurosci, provides the first brain-based explanation for the well-established relationship between sleep and pain.
In two studies -- one in a sleep laboratory and the other online -- Matthew Walker and colleagues show how the brain processes pain differently when individuals are sleep deprived and how self-reported sleep quality and pain sensitivity can change night-to-night and day-to-day. When the researchers kept healthy young adults awake through the night in the lab, they observed increased activity in the primary somatosensory cortex and reduced activity in regions of the striatum and insula cortex during a pain sensitivity task.
Adam J. Krause, Aric A. Prather, Tor D. Wager, Martin A. Lindquist, Matthew P. Walker. The pain of sleep loss: A brain characterization in humans. The Journal of Neuroscience, 2019; 2408-18 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2408-18.2018
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday February 05 2019, @12:16PM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @02:01PM
Not enough sleep, royal pain in the ass!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @05:58PM (1 child)
The worst though is when you get that feedback cycle where it's tough to get a good night sleep because of the pain and the pain doesn't go away because the repair work isn't going on at night when you're supposed to be sleeping.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:08PM
A solid 3mg dose of melatonin will help with that if you're not too far gone. Just be warned that it can cause some weird dreams: my first melatonin night included a dream of being back in the Bronx, in an unfamiliar apartment, swearing my head off in Spanish at a glass of water on the table. It made perfect sense at the time: just me leaning over it, both hands on the table, going "El vaso de agua es hijo de puta!" for some reason.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:32AM
I toss, I turn, I get up. How does somebody that’s sleeping 12 and 14 hours a day compete with someone that’s sleeping three or four?