People suffering from chronic pain could have a palliative with no side effects and more effective and cheaper than painkillers: get more sleep. This is the conclusion of a joint study of doctors and specialists from Boston Children’s Hospital and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in the same American city.
Researchers have also found that these patients may find relief by taking substances that keep them awake, such as caffeine or modafinil, a neurostimulant that promotes alertness. The results, published in the journal Nature Medicine, are based on work done with mice.
No sleep is worse
To begin with, the researchers measured the sleep cycles of each mouse studied using electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG). They then divided the rodents into groups, subjecting some to moderate sleep deprivation, entertaining them with exercises and toys at times when they were supposed to start sleeping.
The result was unexpected: after five days, the animals began to show greater sensitivity to pain. Furthermore, the use of common pain relievers such as ibuprofen did not improve this supervening hypersensitivity, and neither did much more powerful remedies such as morphine.
In contrast, both caffeine and modafinil, used to maintain wakefulness, did block this exacerbated response to painful stimuli caused by acute or chronic lack of sleep. Interestingly, in the mice that had slept normally, these two substances had no analgesic properties.
Lessons for treating chronic pain
If they can be applied to humans – there are still many clinical tests to be carried out – these results would make possible new ways of fighting chronic pain, a disease that afflicts one in five Spaniards. The research authors think that, for these people, pain relievers might be a worse solution than the combination of getting a good night’s sleep and occasionally using waking-promoting substances to break the cycle of pain.
Image: Gtres Online
