Lose sleep, feel more pain - beginning a dialogue
Pain and sleep leaders - we need your help!
A short statement made to me about my doctors recently got me thinking...
The statement was about the story of the blind men and the elephant. Each blind man felt a different part of the elephant and assumed the elephant was something different than what it was. My doctor told me,
"Everybody sees a different part of the elephant."
Nobody was seeing the complete picture - just a tiny portion. This can be tough when you're the elephant and need help! Let me explain:
A recent article in the journal Pain discussed a small study in which 10 healthy male subjects were tested and observed for two mornings - after a regular night's sleep, and then after a night of interrupted sleep. The results showed that disturbed sleep resulted not only in boosted pain levels, but also the subjects lowered ability to focus their attention away from pain.
Chronic pain is making headlines as it reaches epidemic proportion. Finally it may be taken seriously and my hope is that soon adjustments will be made within the medical communities at large to help patients in this kind of debilitating situation.
Treatment is vital, but prevention is even more important. Keep reading to see how YOU can help!.
It seems fairly obvious that pain directly affects sleep patterns. This brings to mind the chicken and the egg scenario - Could it be that disturbed sleep is contributing to the epidemic of chronic pain?
What can we as sleep leaders do to reach out to chronic pain patients who may not be getting proper treatment for sleep disorders that may be significantly contributing to their disabling conditions and quality of life issues? Will you be receptive if someone in a pain community reaches out to you for help to create awareness?
It's been my fairly limited experience within the sleep community thus far, that sleep health communities and leaders tend to be slightly less interactive - perhaps even somewhat isolated - in contrast to the extremely open and vocal pain communities and leaders. Maybe it's because they're getting more sleep! :) It is difficult to comment on sleep blogs or reach many sleep leaders personally for information or support, which can be discouraging for those looking for help, support and answers. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm wondering if other Health Activists have also found this to be true, and if so, what did they do to create a different feel or environment in their own communities?
Additionally, What can we do right now to reach out to the pain communities and offer information and support that will be helpful to them?
I'd also like to open up a dialogue with chronic pain Health Activists and encourage them to share ideas from their own perspectives -
What would you like to see from the sleep community? From your own communities? What can sleep leaders and communities do to reach out and support chronic pain patients and their communities? What can you do to reach out to them? Would joining together to focus on the interrelationship between pain and sleep be helpful? What are those within your chronic pain communities doing to reach out to other groups like the sleep community that may be intimately related to your pain experience?
I would love for this to be a small space where sleep and pain community leaders can begin to connect with each other for the benefit of both groups! Maybe you'd invite someone to guest blog for you. Maybe you'll allow an interview to be done, or simply link to them in a post. Maybe you'll share another idea altogether!
What do you think? Will you help? Let's get a conversation started!!
In true Facebook fashion, I'm going to 'tag' some of my favorite sleep and pain health activists and let them know we'd like to generate mutual support. Let's see how many respond! You can help - I'll be contacting them in the next couple of days to see if they are interested in networking together for mutual awareness. Why don't you join me? If readers would like to add their favorites, please reply with their contact information.
Just a few FABULOUS Sleep leaders:
Dr Stephen Park's blog
Dr Breus' The Insomnia blog
Sean Coughlin's blog - A Sleepyhead's Bedside Companion
SleepApneaEd's blog and WEGO Health profile
Go Sleep Seattle's Twitter
Nathan's remzzzs Twitter
A Blog Around the Clock
SleepWell blog
Sleep Tips Twitter
...and a few truly WONDERFUL Pain leaders:
Nancy L Sajben MD's pain San Diego blog
Christine Miserandino's But You Don't Look Sick blog - Spoon Lady Speaks
For Grace on Twitter
How To Cope With Pain blog
Chronic Babe's blog
Lisa Copen's Invisible Illness blog
Amy's Una Vita Bella blog
Marla's Are You Winning Your Life blog
Megan Oltman's Free My Brain from Migraine Pain blog
There are SO MANY more people vital in these communities - please ask them to join us in conversation!
A short statement made to me about my doctors recently got me thinking...
The statement was about the story of the blind men and the elephant. Each blind man felt a different part of the elephant and assumed the elephant was something different than what it was. My doctor told me,
"Everybody sees a different part of the elephant."
Nobody was seeing the complete picture - just a tiny portion. This can be tough when you're the elephant and need help! Let me explain:
A recent article in the journal Pain discussed a small study in which 10 healthy male subjects were tested and observed for two mornings - after a regular night's sleep, and then after a night of interrupted sleep. The results showed that disturbed sleep resulted not only in boosted pain levels, but also the subjects lowered ability to focus their attention away from pain.
Chronic pain is making headlines as it reaches epidemic proportion. Finally it may be taken seriously and my hope is that soon adjustments will be made within the medical communities at large to help patients in this kind of debilitating situation.
Treatment is vital, but prevention is even more important. Keep reading to see how YOU can help!.
It seems fairly obvious that pain directly affects sleep patterns. This brings to mind the chicken and the egg scenario - Could it be that disturbed sleep is contributing to the epidemic of chronic pain?
What can we as sleep leaders do to reach out to chronic pain patients who may not be getting proper treatment for sleep disorders that may be significantly contributing to their disabling conditions and quality of life issues? Will you be receptive if someone in a pain community reaches out to you for help to create awareness?
It's been my fairly limited experience within the sleep community thus far, that sleep health communities and leaders tend to be slightly less interactive - perhaps even somewhat isolated - in contrast to the extremely open and vocal pain communities and leaders. Maybe it's because they're getting more sleep! :) It is difficult to comment on sleep blogs or reach many sleep leaders personally for information or support, which can be discouraging for those looking for help, support and answers. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm wondering if other Health Activists have also found this to be true, and if so, what did they do to create a different feel or environment in their own communities?
Additionally, What can we do right now to reach out to the pain communities and offer information and support that will be helpful to them?
I'd also like to open up a dialogue with chronic pain Health Activists and encourage them to share ideas from their own perspectives -
What would you like to see from the sleep community? From your own communities? What can sleep leaders and communities do to reach out and support chronic pain patients and their communities? What can you do to reach out to them? Would joining together to focus on the interrelationship between pain and sleep be helpful? What are those within your chronic pain communities doing to reach out to other groups like the sleep community that may be intimately related to your pain experience?
I would love for this to be a small space where sleep and pain community leaders can begin to connect with each other for the benefit of both groups! Maybe you'd invite someone to guest blog for you. Maybe you'll allow an interview to be done, or simply link to them in a post. Maybe you'll share another idea altogether!
What do you think? Will you help? Let's get a conversation started!!
In true Facebook fashion, I'm going to 'tag' some of my favorite sleep and pain health activists and let them know we'd like to generate mutual support. Let's see how many respond! You can help - I'll be contacting them in the next couple of days to see if they are interested in networking together for mutual awareness. Why don't you join me? If readers would like to add their favorites, please reply with their contact information.
Just a few FABULOUS Sleep leaders:
Dr Stephen Park's blog
Dr Breus' The Insomnia blog
Sean Coughlin's blog - A Sleepyhead's Bedside Companion
SleepApneaEd's blog and WEGO Health profile
Go Sleep Seattle's Twitter
Nathan's remzzzs Twitter
A Blog Around the Clock
SleepWell blog
Sleep Tips Twitter
...and a few truly WONDERFUL Pain leaders:
Nancy L Sajben MD's pain San Diego blog
Christine Miserandino's But You Don't Look Sick blog - Spoon Lady Speaks
For Grace on Twitter
How To Cope With Pain blog
Chronic Babe's blog
Lisa Copen's Invisible Illness blog
Amy's Una Vita Bella blog
Marla's Are You Winning Your Life blog
Megan Oltman's Free My Brain from Migraine Pain blog
There are SO MANY more people vital in these communities - please ask them to join us in conversation!
Tags: chronic pain, epidemic, insomnia, pain, sleep, twitter
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