Extra sleep 'as good as codeine dose'

[Chronik Fatigue]

Extra sleep 'as good as codeine dose'

September 5, 2007 - 11:04AM

Sleeping more can act as a painkiller, according to a study showing extra shut-eye every night can be as numbing as a good dose of codeine.

Research presented to a world sleep conference in Cairns has found that one or two hours more sleep can dull sensitivity to pain as much as 60mg of analgesic drugs.

The results suggest that people who suffer from chronic pain or those who are about to undergo painful surgery should get as much extra sleep as possible to reduce their sensitivity to the uncomfortable sensation.

"Essentially what we're saying is that increased bedtime can act as a pain-alleviating drug," said lead researcher Professor Timothy Roehrs, director of research at the Sleep Disorders and Research Centre of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

This may be a very simple and cheap way for people to help manage pain in their life that they've probably never thought of before.

Scientists enlisted six healthy young adults with no sleeping problems and forced them to stay in bed for 10 hours a night for six nights in a row. They then did a comparison between the effects of a longer sleep and the effects of different doses of the analgesic, codeine.

The participants' sensitivity to pain was tested at the beginning and end of the trial, with researchers measuring how long it took them to pull away from a heated light bulb.

"We found that increasing their time in bed and making them more alert, reduced their sensitivity to pain to the equivalent of having taken between 30 and 60mg of codeine," Prof Roehrs said.

"This implies that much of the pain people experience may be the result simply spending an insufficient time in bed, and they just need get more."

Studies have shown that chemicals produced by the body, called pro-inflammatory cytokines, are probably responsible for this sensitivity.

The chemicals sensitise the body to painful stimuli so humans have a natural defensive response to stressors that could harm us. Sleep loss is one of these stressors so cutting back on sleep raises lowers the pain threshold dramatically.

The research was presented at worldsleep07, a scientific meeting to showcase the latest in sleep disorders like insomnia, snoring and sleep apnoea.

© 2007

AAP

 

[Splatt]

How about trying to sleep with back and neck pain?

Good one scientists!

 

[yellodolphin]

so what does that mean? extra sleep maybe reduces nerve activity..

 

[Love In Vein]

Yeah... uh, when I get extra sleep (more than 6 or 7 hours), it doesn't feel anything like I've taken codeine. I do not feel more refreshed or less pain. Infact, I feel sore as if I've slept too much. Even when I had worked out or done something really exhausting the day before.

I'd have to say these "researchers" are nuts.

 

[manic_panic]

for some reason i'm just not buying this.

 

[frizzantik]

well when i dont get a lot of sleep i feel like shit so it would make sense getting more sleep would make you feel better lol

/goes back to sleep

 

[phr]

Pain is quite subjective. I wouldn't buy into this. There are plenty of other factors that could have influenced the results. For example, if I'm having a shitty day overall, I'll be a lot more sensitive to pain.

Oh, and the sample size was way to small.

You'd probably get similar results from a placebo vs. codeine study...

 

[nabollocks]

+ how do you make someone sleep for 10 hours?? give em a hit of codeine?

This is so out there... Sounds like a high school project.

+ is this suggesting that people that are sleep deprived should use codeine?

 

[Zagenth]

Wow, SIX WHOLE PARTICIPANTS?? I'm stunned, that's a huge sample of the population. *end sarcasm*

Seriously, this whole thing is flawed. I have come to believe (I'm pretty sure I've read this somewhere, but it has been years so I have no idea where I read it) that your body has a sleep cycle, a certain amount of hours your body requires for proper sleep. It's different for everyone, but everyone has a cycle. Mine is between 6 and 8 hours, some people have 4, some have 10. Anyways, once you hit that mark, and you stay asleep, you start another cycle. So if you have an 8 hour cycle, and you sleep 10 hours, you basically wake up feeling like you got 2 hours of sleep. This could all be conjecture on my part seeing as I can't verify it with documentation, but I have noticed it to be true with my own experience. *shrug* Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass.