Chronic pain can interfere with work, exercise, activities, and general daily life. So, At the end of the day, after suffering through pain to complete necessary daily tasks; A good night’s sleep sounds like the perfect cure. However, for the majority of chronic pain sufferers, laying down for a solid eight hours is unfortunately not that simple.
Fibromyalgia is a condition that many patients describe as a chronic, dull ache that is persistent all day long. People who have been diagnosed with it have associated fatigue, trouble with sleep patterns, numbness and tingling, and diffuse muscle pain. The theory is that people with fibromyalgia have heightened sensation of pain. Where a normal touch is perceived as mild to moderately painful. These tender areas are not just in one area such as the neck or back but diffuse throughout the body. People, at times, have categorized it like feeling like the flu. This widespread pain can range from mild to debilitating.
It is estimated that up to 85% of chronic pain patients suffer from severe depression. Sometimes pain is a symptom of pre-existing depression, and sometimes the depression comes as a result of the effects of chronic pain. With potentially one fifth of the US population suffering from chronic pain, understanding the association between depression and pain, and the subsequent treatment of the two, is becoming more and more important.
