Prevalence of sleep disturbance and its relationship to pain in adults with chronic pain

Abstract

The study examined the prevalence and relationship between sleep disturbance and chronic pain. Research questions were: (1) What is the prevalence of sleep disturbance in adults with chronic pain, and how does this prevalence compare with healthy and insomniac adults? (2) What is the relationship between sleep disturbance and chronic pain? (3) What is the relationship of patient characteristics to sleep? This descriptive, correlational field study was done at an interdisciplinary pain clinic, sampling 99 adults, and using an 11-point pain scale and a visual analog sleep scale. For every disturbance item, more than 47% of subjects reported a score of 50 or higher, twice as high as those for healthy adults, indicating disrupted sleep. For every effectiveness item, more than 54% of subjects reported a score of 50 or less, significantly lower than for healthy adults, indicating poor sleep quality. For every supplementation item, more than 60% reported mean scores of 10 or less, indicating minimal napping, yet scores were higher than for healthy adults. For all three scales, scores were similar to the mean scores for insomniacs. Soundness of sleep showed a small but significant positive (r <.30) correlation with years of pain. Supplementation scale items were not correlated with either years of pain or pain intensity. Fragmentation was significant on the basis of gender, with men having higher scores than women. Age was a negative predictor of sleep latency. Education and age were negative predictors of the quality of sleep.