Posted on 08/06/2025 8:05:16 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Approximately one in five people on Earth lives with chronic pain. And the vast majority—up to two-thirds—are women. New research from Aalborg University sheds light on a possible cause: sleep.
A new study shows that disturbed sleep increases the body's sensitivity to pain, and that women react more strongly than men. According to the researchers, this opens up a new and often overlooked approach to both the understanding and treatment of chronic pain.
"For many years, we've relied on stronger and more targeted medicine. But perhaps the solution is far simpler. It seems that sleep plays a greater role in pain than we previously understood, especially in women," says Kristian Kjær-Staal Petersen, associate professor and pain researcher at Aalborg University.
The study included 59 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 45. For three nights, the participants were woken up three times each night and asked to complete small tasks before they could go back to sleep. Both before and after the experiment, the researchers measured the nervous system's response to pain, and the results were unmistakable: Even short-term disturbances in sleep affected both body and mind.
The study is the first of its kind to experimentally show a direct correlation between sleep disturbance, pain sensitivity and gender. But according to the researchers, it adds to a larger pattern that has already been seen in studies with hundreds of patients:
"When we see the same pattern in different studies, it strengthens the validity of our findings. All the results indicate that quality of sleep is central to many vital functions in the body, such as the immune system, psychological factors and our lifestyle in general," says Kjær-Staal Petersen.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
“Women and minorities hardest hit.” ~RL
I’m a woman and you don’t want to know me if I don’t get ten hours of sleep every night. My female cat does too.
I have trouble sleeping because of chronic pain. I sleep with 5-6 pillows, still toss and turn.
“Vast majority”
As much as 2/3
That’s not a VAST majority, though it IS a significant number.
But of course, it’s millennial and gen-z women, so each ONE of them is the equivalent of SIXTEEN “old people”. That’s why it’s VAST!
Did they stop to think that chronic pain interferes with sleep quality?
How do they know the cause and effect?
^^This^^
Women, sleep more. There, I did my part.
“Chronic Pain Leads to Poor Sleep”
Why must we be subjected to these ridiculous conclusions based on so-called “scientific studies” of a mere 59 people cohort? It’s utter nonsense. Not a single utterance about chronic pair CAUSING the interrupted sleep patterns. :SPIT:
pain - not pair
I read it as *pain* anyways.
Your brain sometimes fills in what it knows should be said or what was meant.
FWIW< I ALWAYS catch those as I’m hitting the post button and can’t stop in time
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