People experiencing chronic pain can feel isolated and alone, and nothing increases that more than feeling like no one understands what you are going through. Even the most supportive loved ones might suggest that the pain is psychological—all in your mind. While it’s true that pain is largely a process of neurotransmitters, there is no arguing that its effects are all-too real. In a comprehensive treatment plan, chronic pain therapy can be the one thing that bridges the gap between mind and body. Here’s how it works.

How can mental health therapy help with chronic pain?

In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research. It cited the startling facts of chronic pain, the far-reaching of effects of which had not been fully understood until this article brought them together. The IOM labeled chronic pain as “biopsychosocial.” This finally acknowledges that chronic pain is a complex phenomenon that isn’t just about a physical sensation.

Since then, it is not shocking that the study of pain has still focused largely on the physical sensations. Physical pain is easier to measure. But there is some progress.

The stigma of mental health issues is real and remains one of the largest barriers to seeking help. Recent research articles have reframed that not as stigma but as discrimination aimed at some of the most-affected groups.

Regardless of the label, the benefits of chronic pain therapy exist in the research.

• A review of studies updated in 2020 found that pain patients receiving psychological treatment were likely to feel less pain (and less distress when pain flared)
• Chronic pain therapy often successfully addresses conditions that both increase and are increased by chronic pain (e.g., anxiety and depression)
• Patients who participate in group therapy or support groups experience better physical and mental health outcomes

And chronic pain therapy is urgently needed. A 2018 study across 18 states in the U.S. found that almost 9% of people who died by suicide cited chronic pain in their suicide notes.

Whether we want to acknowledge it and study it or not, chronic pain and mental health are inextricably linked. Treating one helps treat the other.

Types of chronic pain therapy available

Chronic pain therapy—like many other therapies for chronic pain—is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Just as our pain is as different as we are, the therapy that helps the most will also be similarly individual.

While a number of chronic pain therapy approaches exist, here are five of the most common.

1. Cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most well-known types of therapy. This is a form of “talk therapy” where a therapist and patient work through a specific issue or set of issues. The goal is not to reach a resolution but to change the behavior and thought pattern surrounding those issues. The idea behind this therapy is that a specific pattern of thought is contributing to your experience of something. CBT works to break or change that negative thought pattern.

Patients might use journaling, desensitization, or cognitive rehearsal to change their thought patterns. By keeping track of your thoughts, or examining them without attaching any significance to them, you may find your pain levels more manageable. CBT does not remove the pain or treat the cause. What it does is change the way you think about and interact with your experience of it.

According to the research, CBT can change the way you manage your pain, help you decrease your use of opioids, and provide you with tools to take charge of your treatment.

Many people benefit from CBT for chronic pain. Those with other conditions such as substance abuse disorders, eating disorders, phobias, ADHD, and PTSD also have success with this type of chronic pain therapy. CBT works to treat both chronic pain with a specific cause and chronic pain whose cause is as yet undiagnosed.

2. Group therapy for chronic pain

The isolation of chronic pain can be an insurmountable obstacle to treatment. Many people feel utterly alone, with friends and families who either don’t believe them or feel helpless in the face of their unresponsive pain.

This is where group therapy for chronic pain comes in.

Group therapy for chronic pain is frequently confused with support groups. There are some significant differences between the two (though, both can be very helpful). Put very simply, support groups exist to help you cope with the daily struggles of chronic pain. Group therapy exists to help you unpack your condition and grow.

Support groups are truly valuable when you are feeling isolated and lonely in your pain. They do not need to have a licensed therapist as a facilitator (but sometimes they do). Often, they focus on successes, tips for coping, and support for daily struggles. Support groups are usually free and available both in-person and online.

On the other hand, group therapy for chronic pain is committed to helping each participant change. It is more structured than a support group. It is led by a licensed therapist who usually screens participants to include those working on similar issues. Group therapy is often more affordable than individual therapy, but it is not free.

Research on these two types of chronic pain therapy is hard to come by. It is a challenging study to design in a scientifically-valid way. Most evidence of its effectiveness is anecdotal, but it is worth a try.

When it comes to support groups, it’s safe to say that everyone in pain could benefit from understanding and support. And if you have a therapist or doctor you trust but need to economize, group therapy with that person can still provide benefits. Talk to trusted healthcare workers for recommendations.

3. Acceptance and commitment therapy for chronic pain

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for chronic pain helps people to look at their situation and accept it. It does not try to change your outlook or modify your thinking. It simply notes that yes, you have fibromyalgia, but how can you live with that understanding anyway?

Unlike CBT for chronic pain, acceptance and commitment therapy does not try to reframe or otherwise change your patterns of thought or behavior. It’s the difference between looking at your pain and saying, “Why me?” and looking at your pain and saying, “Why not me?” It’s a very Zen-like approach to thinking about chronic pain as a thing that simply exists—no more or less.

ACT might work well for patients in the early stages of chronic pain, especially those who are experiencing extreme distress at the thought of life in pain.

4. SFBT for chronic pain

Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) might be the most utilitarian form of chronic pain therapy on our list. Short-term and hyper-focused on a goal, this type of therapy wants patients to experience specific successes when it comes to chronic pain. SFBT works to improve a person’s daily life through reachable targets.

Using the phrase “preferred future” as a guiding light, SFBT helps pain patients describe what they want that to look like. This helps people to take concrete control of their lives, a big plus for people in chronic pain.

This approach might benefit patients looking to take measurable steps in their treatment. Consultations focus on successes and lay out a process to reach their goals.

5. EMDR for chronic pain

In the ground-breaking book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk makes the case that when it comes to trauma, our bodies remember. Long after the traumatic event has passed and the acute injuries have healed, the trauma of the event—whatever it is—remains lodged in our cells, causing lingering pain. Van der Kolk used EMDR for PTSD and sexual assault survivors, conditions that are often related to chronic pain as well.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) consists of therapist-directed eye and hand movements to essentially access the patient’s traumatic memories and integrate them. This integration can be very difficult, but on the other side of it is healing.

Research studies on EMDR as a chronic pain therapy are small but promising. Various studies have found that EMDR reduces pain and decreases mood disorders and other associated psychological issues.

Patients who have chronic pain as a result of a specific traumatic event may benefit most from this type of chronic pain therapy.

How to get started with chronic pain therapy

Getting started with chronic pain therapy can feel intimidating. Even with mental health awareness at an all-time high, many people still feel uneasy recognizing that they need help.

This is a normal feeling. Many people try everything else before they seek out chronic pain therapy. It may be a cliché, but it’s true that the first step is accepting that you need to try something different. After that, there are five steps to getting started with chronic pain therapy.

Step 1: Talk to your doctor

Your doctor has been coordinating your treatments so far, and it makes good sense to seek out references from them. They may work closely with therapists who specialize in chronic pain.

If your doctor does not have a referral for you, visit an online support group for suggestions. You can also ask people you know for recommendations.

Step 2: Set up your initial psychological evaluation

Many people are put off by the term “psychological evaluation.” It’s really just a way to assess your current mental health and to design an appropriate plan for treatment. It’s similar to an initial consultation with your doctor.

It doesn’t mean you will be declared insane, immediately be placed on medication, or get an on-the-spot diagnosis. What it does mean is that you will begin to carve a path to better mental health by creating a plan with your therapist.

Your initial consultation may be in-person, but many therapists are offering telemedicine. This can be helpful on those days when chronic pain flares prevent you from leaving the house.

Step 3: Attend regular appointments

Attending regular therapy appointments are the key to making progress. It can be very challenging to commit to talking about your mental struggles, especially if that is not something in your past experience. Maybe you show up and don’t feel like talking. This is okay. Your therapist is used to that and expects it. They are trained to help you to open up and examine what’s on your mind.

However, if you only attend therapy sporadically, constantly skipping or rescheduling appointments, it’s difficult to develop a relationship that is helpful. If money is an issue and insurance only covers a limited number of appointments, plan a schedule with your therapist that makes sense.

Then stick to it.

Step 4: Do your homework

No, there won’t be a quiz, but yes, there is usually homework. The majority of the breakthroughs and progress happen outside of the therapist’s office.

You may be asked to write things down or to put something in action and then report back at your next appointment. Make every effort to follow through on these “assignments.”

Consider one of the sayings of Alcoholics Anonymous: it works if you work it. So, work it.

Find help

Arizona Pain is a Phoenix-based pain management clinic that offers psychological evaluations, cognitive behavioral therapy, and biofeedback for patients in pain. Additionally, we host two support groups a week for peer support.

If you are in Arizona and ready to explore chronic pain therapy, get in touch to see how we can help.

It’s one thing to be faced with the daily struggles of chronic pain. Simple things like tying your shoes or walking down a flight of stairs are hard enough. But what happens when your struggles go beyond daily physical pain? Chronic pain and loneliness amplify each other—your pain isolates you, and that isolation increases your pain

At Arizona Pain, we’re here to help. You don’t have to suffer alone. Knowing how to cope with chronic pain and loneliness can help relieve both and keep you connected to the people you love.

Understanding chronic pain and loneliness 

While chronic pain is beginning to gain more widespread awareness and understanding, it is still typically an “invisible illness” with many devastating side effects.

Chronic illness and loneliness are peas in a pod, unfortunately, for a few reasons. We understand many of these and talk to our patients honestly and openly about the challenges of chronic pain, so we can move towards healing. We have some suggestions later in this post for ways to cope with chronic pain and loneliness.

The pain often has no end in sight

When we sustain an acute injury like a broken bone, we may have to sit in our homes in a cast for a few weeks while it heals. Chronic pain is not as finite.

Many experience a lifetime of unrelieved pain. When you are not surrounded by people with this experience, chronic pain can lead to loneliness and isolation.

Pain makes us turn inward

People in chronic pain often report feeling trapped by their body or unable to reach out for help. These inward-turning feelings can increase social isolation and loneliness.

Many people who suffer from chronic pain find it very difficult to explain their feelings to those who do not suffer and may shut down even further. It’s a vicious cycle.

Your old self feels lost

Chronic pain can dramatically change your life.

Things we once took for granted no longer come easily and may disappear entirely. One day you are running marathons, and the next you can barely walk downstairs for breakfast. Struggling to figure out who you are in the face of this loss can feel impossible.

Constant pain creates constant stress

When your body and mind are dealing with constant pain, both respond to this stress in physical and psychological ways. Murray J. McAllister, executive director of the Institute for Chronic Pain points out that losing a sense of direction and feeling stuck are both stressful side effects of chronic pain:

“These stressors can make pain worse because stress affects the nervous system. It makes the nervous system more reactive and you become ‘nervous.’ Chronic pain causes stressful problems, which, in turn, cause stress that makes the pain worse.”

Guilt can be overwhelming

One of the hardest parts of chronic pain is the tremendous guilt. Sure, you feel badly because you cannot participate in your old life, but what happens when you miss your children’s birthdays? Graduations? How about when a partner wants to take a vacation and you just cannot do it?

The guilt can be overwhelming, sending you into a spiral of chronic pain and loneliness. It feels like no matter how much your kids, friends, and family say they understand, it’s impossible to know for sure.

Chronic pain…it’s boring

Let’s face it: you can only watch so much TV, read so many books, and knit so many sweaters (if your hands can take it). Chronic pain places physical limits on so many things that you cannot help but be, at times, overwhelmingly bored. Chronic pain and boredom are aspects that aren’t discussed much, mostly because many people who don’t have chronic illness think they would love the opportunity to just “lie around all day.” But, you know better.

Compounding all of the factors above is the extraordinary period of social distancing brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even for people who normally have good strategies in place for coping with chronic pain and isolation, social distancing requirements have forced everyone to keep a safe distance from each other.

And if you have chronic pain and another health condition that makes you more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection? It’s nearly impossible to get a healthy dose of human contact under COVID-19 safety guidelines.

What are the effects of chronic pain and social isolation? 

Research on the subject of chronic pain and social isolation is definitive. Human beings are social creatures and require the stability and comfort of regular human interaction. Without it, there are very real consequences that go well beyond simply being sad or wishing you had more friends.

• Loneliness causes more rapid deterioration, especially in older adults
• The level of social isolation predicts the level of pain
• Chronic pain and loneliness seem to have a bi-directional relationship
• Social isolation can also provoke a reaction that mimics the pain response
• Loneliness and social isolation predict higher levels of pain, depression, and fatigue
• The lonelier you are, the more pain and negative feelings you might experience

Pain is individually experienced, but we are social creatures. It’s clear that when pain forces us into isolation, we suffer. At Arizona Pain, we’re here to help as much as we can.

How to cope with chronic pain and loneliness

Coping with chronic pain and loneliness is an ongoing process. Fortunately, there are many different ways to ease your isolation and feel more connected.

Share this post with others

Part of our intent with this post is to make you feel heard. Chronic pain and loneliness are the reality for many patients, with research that backs it up. Use this post as a jumping-off point to talk openly and honestly with your loved ones about how you feel, and ways they can better support you.

The opposite of loneliness is intimacy and vulnerability with others. Through deeper conversations about the challenges you’re facing, we hope you can create connections to find more support.

Bring people to you

Many people find that one of the most challenging parts of chronic pain and loneliness is being separated from people and celebrations. As Amanda notes in a recent creakyjoints.org post, she has come up with a unique solution: planning what she calls a “girl’s night in.” These small, low-key gatherings allow her to control the food, the setting, and the timing.

You need not plan elaborate celebrations with 20 guests. A simple afternoon visit, scheduled regularly, can go a long way towards re-connecting without overwhelming or causing rebound pain that occurs after overexertion. Can’t meet in person? Plan a Zoom call to catch-up.

Embrace alternative connections

In the same post, Justin K. in Hawaii notes his unique solution to being homebound with arthritis: online multiplayer videogames. He explains:

“I play every day with people all over the world and while we play, we talk. They’re like brothers to me now. If I don’t show up one day, they’ll call. If I have a doctor’s appointment, they ask about it. I know I have people who care about me.”

The online gaming community can be an incredibly supportive place for people all over the world who suffer from social isolation and loneliness. It can also help relieve some of the boredom of chronic pain. What other communities can you find, based around your interests?

Use humor

Yes, it can be hard to find anything funny when your body has seized control and your muscles are contorted with pain. But there is good evidence that humor therapy decreases feelings of loneliness of isolation and increases happiness and satisfaction with life, even when pain persists.

Try to find books, streaming comedy specials, or funny friends to bring some lightness and laughter to your days. Or, find comedians who also live with disabilities or chronic illnesses, like Maysoon Zayid or Samantha Irby, to shine a funny and understanding light on daily challenges.

Meditation

When this suggestion for coping with chronic pain comes up, many patients bristle. Pain may originate in the mind, but it is certainly felt in the body, and meditation can help remove the “story” of the pain. Instead of thinking thoughts like, “I am alone in my pain and always will be,” meditation helps replace that story with, “This pain is here and it is hard, but it will pass,” or “My friends and family may not know exactly what I am going through, but they love me and will do what they can.”

Chronic pain can negatively impact your metal health, but mindfulness meditation is one way to take more control. Start with a few minutes of breathing and gradually increase it so it becomes a regular part of your day. There are many different meditation programs (free or nearly so) to guide you.

Turn to online therapy

Online therapy is a great way to receive counseling, support, and coping strategies when chronic illness and loneliness make it difficult (or dangerous) to go out.

There are high-quality, affordable options for online therapy that can ease your mind and soften the day’s sharp edges.

Find more support online

On those days when even getting out of bed is too much, you can still get relief from chronic pain and loneliness.

Online support groups, like those found on Facebook, are filled with people who understand what you’re going through. Sometimes just knowing that others share your feelings of chronic pain and isolation can help get you through the worst of days.

Practice gratitude

This might be one of the hardest suggestions for coping with chronic pain and loneliness, but it can become of the most effective.

Studies have shown that people who have a regular gratitude practice report less pain and feel less lonely. Simply put, the more grateful you are, the less you will be impacted by your pain. This can be simple. At the beginning of your day, keep a small journal and note what you’re grateful for in your life and relationships. Or, make it easy with a gratitude app.

Consider getting a pet

Pets can bring immeasurable comfort to our lives, and bring us contact on our hardest days. If you have the ability to responsibly care for a pet, bringing one into your home can take away the loneliness. One writer notes:

“I often find myself having conversations with my dog. He just sits there and listens. If I happen to be crying, he licks the tears off my face. It seems he’s always there for me no matter what. Truly my best friend. Even if I don’t speak the words, he seems to know when I need him the most.”

And, whenever possible, adopt a rescue pet!

Get out when you can…carefully

You know those days, the ones where you wake up, and you can tell the pain is a little bit less? The ones where getting dressed doesn’t require long periods of rest between pants and shirt, and you actually can make your kids some breakfast?

These are the days, no matter how often they occur, to get out and be with people. Some folks fill this time with errands and cleaning but consider taking more time to connect with people you have been missing. Whether it’s over a stroll through the park or a picnic, use this time to catch up and to reestablish your connections. The errands can wait, and no one ever goes to their grave wishing they had done more laundry.

Be mindful of overdoing it, though. Rebound pain can make you regret the time spent out in the world. Move slowly, and cherish the quality of time you spend with loved ones.

Chronic pain goes beyond the body 

Chronic pain is not just about where it physically hurts. It comes with significant anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness and isolation. You might be feeling low in spirit and drained physically and emotionally.

But you are not alone.

Chronic pain and loneliness do not have to be a life sentence. Arizona Pain understands the complicated challenges of chronic illness, and we want to help you get your life back. If you are struggling to make sense of your pain and feeling isolated, reach out. Our team develops customized pain management plans for every patient so we can help you get your life back, focusing on treatments for both mental and physical health.

Get in touch today to see how we can help.

Sleep is as fundamental as eating. Without the right amount of sleep you can actually increase your risk of a variety of medical conditions, including increased pain. It might be surprising to hear that sleep can be responsible for various levels of chronic pain but it is essential to understand that without sleep your body can’t regenerate and renew the way nature intended. Here’s how sleep and pain are connected, as well as ten ways to improve your sleep.

Why are we so focused on sleep and pain? 

We believe in a holistic approach to treating chronic pain. This means it is critical to keep all aspects of a healthy body in mind when treating a condition. Sleep is part of this process and without a proper night’s sleep you may exacerbate existing pain or even experience increased or new pain.

For example, in March of 2014 researchers at the University of Warwick in England determined that better sleep could help chronic pain patients stay more active and, in return, lessen their overall pain.

There is a vicious circle when it comes to sleep and pain. Is the pain causing the insomnia or is the lack of sleep causing the pain? Physical activity is a common recommendation for someone with chronic pain but if the patient is too exhausted to exercise and unable to sleep at night they may unwittingly be causing more pain overall. Of course, it isn’t as easy as telling someone with pain-related insomnia to get more sleep. There needs to be better treatments to help patients get quality rest.

Lead researcher, Dr. Nicole Tang, says:

“The current study identified sleep quality, rather than pain and low mood, as a key driver of physical activity the next day. The finding challenges the conventional target of treatment being primarily focused on changing what patients do during the day. Sleep has a naturally recuperative power that is often overlooked in pain management. A greater treatment emphasis on sleep may help patients improve their daytime functioning and hence their quality of life.”

Sleep and osteoarthritis patients

Later in the year, a study published in the journal Arthritis Pain & Care explored the way sleep affects chronic pain in osteoarthritis patients. They cited the cycle the medical community previously understood as lack of sleep, increased pain, depression, and disability and noted that it may not play out in a neat circle.

Their findings demonstrated that sleep was associated with both pain and depression at the beginning of the study but disability was not linked to baseline sleep disturbances. High pain levels that were paired with poor sleep also increased rates of depression. However, after a one-year follow-up sleep disturbances successfully predicted increased depression and disability but did not correlate to increased pain.

Osteoporosis and sleep 

In February of this year, another study in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research demonstrated sleep problems may actually impact bone health which could have wider implications for individuals dealing with bone-related chronic pain issues, such as osteoporosis.

Our bones are not made of the hard, rock-like substance that we know from museums. They regenerate daily and need healthy sleep to do so properly. The researchers suggest that sleep apnea may contribute to some cases of osteoporosis as it affects sleep duration, quality, and inflammation. This sleep disruption may impact natural bone metabolism.

Of course, these pain conditions are just the tip of the iceberg and there are more ways that lack of sleep can impact a patient’s quality of life.

Sleep and fibromyalgia

The pain condition fibromyalgia is still very much a medical mystery. While many studies have been conducted to determine the underlying cause to help find a cure, the medical community still doesn’t entirely understand what causes fibromyalgia. At this time, most of the treatments are for the symptoms, which can help patients have a better quality of life, but there is a lot of research that still needs to happen to effectively understand this pain condition better.

However, it is pretty clear that there is a correlation between fibromyalgia pain and quality of sleep. Fibromyalgia affects between 2 to 6% of people all over the world. The condition that was once assumed to be purely psychological has been getting more attention lately as researchers get a better, but still incomplete, understanding of the condition. One of the primary concerns is the sleep and pain cycle. The pain caused by fibromyalgia leads to lack of sleep or poor quality sleep which leads to increased fibromyalgia pain. But researchers have also found that improving quality of sleep, though a variety of methods, also improves the instances of pain.

For this reason, it is important that the community continue to study the way sleep affects this condition and make recommendations and improvements for fibromyalgia patients. In the meantime we can continue working with individuals to help improve their own sleep patterns one night at a time.

The cause of insomnia

Of course, there is also no clear consensus on why some people experience insomnia while others don’t. It is frequently caused by a disruption to the sleep pattern, such as travel, or stressful events. As people age they may also experience more sleep interruptions. The amount of sleep our bodies need doesn’t change at all, but we are far more likely to wake multiple times throughout the night and have a hard time falling back to sleep.

Sometimes insomnia is brought about by our own psychology. When you lay awake at night trying desperately to fall asleep, you could be talking your brain out of it all together. But there are other, more physical reasons as well. Pain of any level can cause sleep disruptions. Acute pain, however, eventually goes away. Chronic pain can make sleep much more complicated. When you wake multiple times in the night due to pain and discomfort your body isn’t getting the regenerative sleep it needs. This could lead to issues with your overall metabolism and digestion issues as well as possibly causing or exacerbating diabetes and, of course, increased pain.

How to improve your sleep to reduce your pain

Because of the connection between sleep and chronic pain it is important for pain patients to get a better understanding of the effects of sleep and how to improve the quality of it in their lives. The vicious cycle can seem never-ending: pain makes it difficult to sleep, but the lack of sleep makes pain much worse during waking hours.

Worrying about the lack of sleep increases the likelihood that sleep won’t happen or, when it does, that it will be fitful. How can you stop this cycle? There are a number of ways, from medical to behavioral, that you can change your own sleep patterns to get better quality sleep each and every night.

1. Make sleep a priority

You’ve probably heard plenty of advice to make lots of things in your life a priority. Experts say you should carve out time for exercise and make sure you’re eating right. In the workplace the “work life balance” is a big topic to encourage employees to make their personal lives as much of a priority as their professional lives.

In all of these conversations, no one ever seems to mention sleep. The first thing everyone should do to ensure that their quality of sleep begins to improve is to give it the priority it deserves. Learn not to make excuses to avoid sleep and over time it will become easier.

2. Establish bedtime routines

This tip might be cheating because it is actually several tips in one. A bedtime routine has proven successful across the board. People who have good bedtime habits see significant better sleep quality than those who do not.

No two bedtime routines are the same but some common ones include:

• Turning off the television at the same time every night
• Avoiding any blue light from cell phones, computers, or tablets
• Putting on pajamas
• Brushing your teeth
• Crawling into bed and reading in silence for about a half an hour before turning off the light

If this sounds simplistic, that’s because it is. These techniques are tried and true.

3. Create a regular sleep schedule

In conjunction with a good bedtime routine is the need for a regular sleep schedule. While there may be exceptions for special events, these really do need to be the exceptions not the rule when it comes to sleep.

Instead, start your bedtime routine at approximately the same time every night. Wake up at the same time every morning with the help of an alarm. Do this even on the weekends if you can so you avoid negatively affecting your internal sleep clock.

4. Nap when necessary

People do not embrace napping nearly enough in our hectic Monday through Friday schedules. It sounds like a luxury only afforded to a small, elite minority of people or kindergarteners. However, napping has a number of restorative benefits.

Napping has been shown to help people relieve stress and boost the immune system of individuals who do not get very much sleep at night. If it can do all that for people who get as little as two hours sleep at night, imagine what it can do to improve even a minor sleep debt without infringing on quality of sleep at night.

5. Improve your mattress

Of course, it is no secret that your mattress has as much to do with your sleep quality as your night time routines and your body’s physiology. You don’t even have to break the bank to buy a brand new mattress to improve the problem.

A comfortable mattress topper, such as a pillow-top or memory foam topper, can do almost as much to help you get a better night’s sleep as investing in an entirely new bed. While you’re at it, consider replacing your pillow more often than you do to make sure it is still comfortable. And use the right pillow for your sleep style.

6. Make it dark

There is quite a bit of research that shows that backlit electronic devices are disturbing our sleep cycles. Well, that isn’t the only culprit.

Many people don’t sleep well at all even if there is a sliver of light in their bedroom. This means obscuring all clocks and other small lights and using black-out shades to block out ambient light from your neighborhood.

7. Turn down the heat

Temperature has as much to do with sleep quality as darkness. You’ve probably experienced restless nights where you find yourself in an endless loop of throwing the covers off of you throughout the night because you’re simply too hot.

A lower temperature in the house actually helps your brain understand that it is time for bed. Plus, you’ll save a little extra in energy costs when you’re not actively heating the rest of your home.

8. Don’t eat before bed

Midnight snacks and late dinners are also a big problem when it comes to finding sleep. In fact, that is literally what late night meals do. Because your body is focusing energy on digestion it causes you to have less restful sleep.

Don’t eat anything after a normal dinner time if you can. If not, make sure to have your last snack before 8 p.m. This applies to alcohol as well. While you might feel sleepy after a glass or two of wine, your sleep will actually be disrupted.

9. Drink non-caffeinated tea

If you do want to add comforting refreshment to your bedtime routine there is nothing better than non-caffeinated tea. Whether it is some blend of herbal teal that promotes sleep or the soothing flavors of South African rooibos, tea can be a very relaxing ritual.

10. Don’t hit snooze

Finally, there is one more thing that can help you improve your overall sleep quality. When your alarm goes off in the morning, don’t give into the temptation to hit snooze. In fact, that extra nine minutes of sleep does nothing to make you feel more refreshed and awake at all and will leave you tired and sluggish as you struggle through your morning routine.

Alarm clocks aren’t all that healthy to begin with but they are necessary for many working professionals, so don’t make the experience worse by giving into the snooze button temptation. If you think you might, put your clock on the other side of your bedroom so you have to get out of bed to turn it off.

What tips have worked to help you improve your sleep and pain levels?

The flurry of getting ready for school—buying school supplies, new clothes, and managing fears related to new teachers or new schools—is exciting but stressful. Managing back-to-school stress is important for living with chronic pain, whether you are the one living with pain or your child. Thankfully, it is possible to make returning to school less stressful while still ensuring thorough preparations for the main event. Here are some easy tips to get started.

1. Start preparing early

Often, time constraints are the most anxiety-provoking conditions. We can do anything as long as there’s enough time to do it.

With this in mind, start shopping for clothes and other supplies a few months earlier than you normally would. You might miss a few sales, but you’ll also miss the crowds and time-crunch pressure, which both contribute to back-to-school stress.

School supplies

You can shop early for these and avoid the rush by seeing if your child’s school has posted a list of needed supplies on their website. If not, purchase the things you know you’ll need as you see them go on sale over the summer.

A new lunchbox and backpack are probably necessities, as are pencils, pens, and loose leaf paper. Classrooms always need tissues and hand sanitizer, so look forward to helping the teachers out, too.

Clothing

As the kids continue to grow and sprout throughout the summer, think ahead to school clothes as you replenish their supply. Many dress codes specify knee-length shorts or skirts, so as your kids outgrow their summer clothes, replace them with dress code-ready substitutes. Summer clothes go on sale mid-July, and back to school time clothes generally feature sweaters and jeans.

Although these may be okay for classrooms that are air conditioned to Arctic temperatures, using on-sale summer clothes to layer with a light sweater may be the best idea until chillier weather comes around.

Immunizations

Most states require some form of immunizations for students to enter school. Check with your school system early to see what is required, then make an appointment if your child needs vaccinations. Doctors’ offices get slammed with last-minute requests every year. If you can, schedule your appointments early in the summer to avoid the rush.

2. Identify tasks and complete them on feel-good days

People without chronic pain may identify a particular day of the week to complete certain tasks. However, chronic pain can be unpredictable. You might decide to visit the school supply store on Wednesday, but wake up not feeling well. Then, you miss your goal, your schedule falls behind, and stress levels rise.

Skip the whole problem by making a list of everything you have to do, and then identifying shopping goals by the week. Then, when you have a good day, seize the opportunity to shop for clothes or other supplies.

This strategy for minimizing back-to-school stress is made possible by the first goal: allotting yourself plenty of time for shopping. When you’re not under a time crunch for getting everything done, it’s no big deal to miss a target by a few days or even a week. No problem!

3. Shop online

Consider purchasing books, pencils, folders, calculators, and other fundamental supplies online. Some websites offer the option to purchase online, and then pick up in store or, like Amazon, ship them directly to your house. Do all the browsing from the comfort of your own home and then slide into the store to effortlessly pick up the needed items and return home without stress.

Shopping online for clothes is an option as well, but one that might result in extra legwork if you need to return ill-fitting pieces or those that don’t meet your expectations. If you’re managing chronic pain, the last thing you want is to make extra trips to the store when you thought your shopping was completed.

Whatever you decide, managing back-to-school stress is all about making smart, strategic decisions.

4. Get organized

Even if organization doesn’t feel natural to you, knowing where to find everything helps ease back-to-school stress, as does living in an environment that feels orderly and under control.

The pace of life picks up once school gets back in session, so taking some time to organize papers and files, supplies and clothes, purchasing shelves and organizers when necessary—they do help!—will go a long way to minimizing stress in the days leading up to school.

Having everything you need well within reach also comes in handy on those days where you just don’t feel like moving.

5. Practice going to school

If your child is the one who is managing back-to-school stress and chronic pain, consider easing first-day jitters by practicing the all-important day. This is an especially good idea if it’s your child’s first year in a new school.

Walk, bike, or drive to school the way you plan to on an ordinary day so the youngster knows what to expect and becomes acclimated to the route and anything he or she might encounter along the way. With children who might be walking to school by themselves, give them safety tips, such as looking both ways before crossing the street and making sure to wait for the crossing guard to help them.

If possible, you might contact the teacher and see if meeting before the first day of school is possible. That way, your child will enter school and see a familiar face. If he or she can scope out the new classroom, that will also help manage back-to-school stress.

6. Talk to your child

Children with chronic pain may have a hard time at school even once the year is in full-swing, but stress can be particularly elevated in the days leading up to school’s return. Have an honest conversation with your child and encourage him or her to voice their concerns. Listen carefully and work to appease your child’s fears or alleviate them.

For instance, if your child is nervous about recess and not being able to play like the rest of the boys and girls, maybe you could work with the school to make alternate arrangements. Your child could spend recess in the library or under the close watch of an aide to ensure no bullying or other behavior occurs.

7. Plan ahead for possible problems

If your child had a rough year last year, or is coping with the health impacts of chronic pain and fears being bullied or not being able to make friends, help your child identify coping strategies. Perhaps a cell phone would be helpful so your child can reach you in case of emergency, or to talk during a bad day.

Alternatively, you could reach out to the school psychologist or nurse. Alert them about your child’s health issues if they don’t know already.

8. Focus on a sleep routine 

Nothing is harder than trying to get kids to go to sleep at a proper bedtime. This is even more true when the sun is still blazing away outside their window. Start your kids with an increasingly early bedtime as summer comes to an end, and wake them up at school time daily (this will help with the early bedtime).

You can also try dark curtains or eye shades for those children who need to sleep in total darkness.

9. Maintain your own healthy habits

When life gets busy or stressful, healthy habits like eating nutritious food and exercising are often the first thing to go. However, prioritizing those activities and emphasizing self-care can go a long way to managing stress while also supporting your lifestyle goals for managing chronic pain.

Back-to-school stress might make you feel as if you have no time to spend on healthy habits. Investing the time in your wellbeing will pay dividends by helping you feel better. And this leads to getting more things accomplished. Consider:

• Cooking in bulk or in a crock pot
• Buying healthy frozen dinners
• Exercising first thing in the morning

Parents experience stress just as much as kids do during this time, much of it centered around meal times in the morning and the evening. In the evening when everyone comes home tired, cranky, and possibly starving, help yourself out by using your crockpot or cooking once to eat all week. After school snacks can also be prepared in advance. Have your kids help to make it a family affair!

10. Develop (and stick to!) a routine

Part of back-to-school stress is the fact that the household routine is completely disrupted by early bedtimes, early rising, lunches to be packed, homework to be done, and dinner to put on the table. The first few days of school can be hectic. It is likely that your child(ren) will be exhausted, excited, and possibly cranky at the end of their day until they get into the swing of things.

Make after school time as stress-free as possible by developing a routine that works for you. This can include things like:

• Snack time and some time outside (or free time inside, but avoid screens)
• Homework time (or reading) while dinner is being made
• After-dinner baths and family time
• Nighttime rituals that work for your kids (e.g., reading, talking, winding down)

If your kids are a little older, help them develop a good routine that incorporates talking about their day, homework, and free time. Limit screens during this transition, at least during the week. Part of this routine can be family movie and pizza night on Fridays, signaling the end of the week. Routines can go a long way to help kids (and parents!) ease into back to school time.

11. Practice stress management techniques

Even with advance planning and preparation, back to school time can be very stressful for kids and parents. With extreme testing requirements and increasing homework loads even for the very youngest children, kids are experiencing stress and its side effects now more than ever. Without an outlet, chronic stress can be damaging to both mental and physical health.

If you notice that your child is having trouble sleeping (or is extremely fatigued), is more emotional than usual, seems irritable, or is lashing out, they may be experiencing stress. Helping kids manage stress is one of the most valuable tools you can offer them as a parent. Simple things like allowing them free time to play, encouraging them to go outside, and limiting screen time can go a long way to alleviate stress during back to school time.

Then, make sure to apply these lessons to yourself. How can you care for yourself when back-to-school time has interrupted your schedule?

Are your kids back in school or headed back soon? How do you manage this back to school time transition?

Have you ever had a stressful day that ended with a headache? That’s a small example of how closely our mental health and pain levels are related, and every day researchers uncover new ways the two influence one another. In this post, we talk about some of the more recent findings when it comes to mental health and pain, as well as research-backed ways to manage your mental health.

What the research says about mental health and pain

Before medical technology gained its remarkable level of sophistication, doctors always asked patients about the things going on in their lives. In the 1800s, before CAT scans and MRIs, opioids and epidurals, doctors looked to a patient’s mental health and daily life circumstances to diagnose and treat disease. Illness was frequently met with recommendations to relax at a spa or enjoy a seaside vacation, according to Medline Plus.

But as medicine advanced, and doctors uncovered the existence of bacteria, antibiotics, and understood more about the development of disease, that historic mind/body connection faded into the background. Over time, the two became completely divorced and many doctors didn’t ask about a patient’s stress levels at all even though research linked poor mental health to everything from chronic pain to high blood pressure, according to WebMD.

Today, however, the link between mental health and physical wellbeing is again gaining prominence. Mental health often influences the development of physical maladies, and health problems typically increase a person’s stress levels and create additional problems. Living with chronic pain undoubtedly causes stress and anxiety that could ironically worsen feelings of pain. Dr. Natalia Morone with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine says:

“You may not be aware of it, but you’re having a negative emotional reaction to chronic pain as well as a physical reaction.”

The interactions between emotions and physical health are intricate and still not completely understood by researchers. The effects of some emotions, like stress, have been well studied when it comes to their influence on pain. Meanwhile, the effects of others, like anger, have not been as thoroughly investigated but are still believed to heavily influence a person’s experience of pain.

Pain is worsened by anger

Everybody feels anger occasionally, but unfortunately many people don’t have effective strategies for coping with this difficult emotion. We may carry anger related to things that happened or words that can’t be unspoken. Releasing anger often requires finding forgiveness for ourselves or others, which is very difficult to do and doesn’t happen automatically.

While it’s understandable to be affected by anger, the emotion can wreak havoc on our health. Anger may increase the risk of heart disease, according to WebMD, with extreme anger invoking the body’s stress response and triggering the production of inflammatory hormones and other components of the flight-or-fight response.

Studies have also connected anger to pain. Dutch researchers studied 121 women, some with fibromyalgia and some without, and found that anger increased the subjects’ levels of pain regardless of whether they had fibromyalgia. Dr. Henriet van Middendorp says:

“Teaching patients to recognize their emotions and to express them may decrease the intensity with which the emotions are experienced, which will also decrease the impact of emotions on pain.”

Other researchers believe anger may be to blame for one of the top chronic pain complaints in the U.S. Dr. John Sarno is a vocal advocate of the theory that repressed rage causes low back pain. According to Prevention magazine:

“Dr. Sarno believes that to protect you from acting on—or being destroyed by—that rage, your unconscious mind distracts you from the anger by creating a socially acceptable malaise: lower back pain.”

Sarno believes that some personalities are at greater risk of pain than others. Traits upping the risk include talented perfectionists who often neglect their own needs to serve others.

Healthy ways of managing anger include talking it out in a rational way, writing notes or journaling, or hitting the gym, Prevention recommends.

Depression may cause or intensify pain

Depression ranks among the most common mental health issues, and unfortunately it has a significant impact on pain. When a person becomes depressed, the brain starts producing neurotransmitters that increase pain sensitivity and may actually cause new aches and pains.

The link between depression and chronic pain is so strong that some types of pain—including aches, joint pain, and headaches—are considered symptoms of the mental health condition, according to therapist Kara Gasperone.

While many people think of depression as persistent feelings of sadness, the condition sometimes manifests physically instead of psychologically.

A study published in The Lancet found one-third of intensive care patients with depression exhibited physical symptoms and not psychological ones. Critical care patients are more likely than the general population to develop depression, and the mental health condition is more common than post-traumatic stress disorder for those patients. Physical symptoms of depression include weakness, a change in appetite, and fatigue.

Although researchers are still working to understand the mechanics behind the link between depression and pain, some studies show that depression brings with it higher levels of cytokines, which are a type of protein that help the body fight infections, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

When cytokines are present in a person not fighting disease or infection, the result can be excessive inflammation that may lead to pain. According to NIMH:

“Many studies are finding that inflammation may be a link between depression and illnesses that often occur with depression.”

Depression may also have a link with fibromyalgia, NIMH says, adding that patients have higher rates of depression. Pain conditions like fibromyalgia may also increase the risk of depression. Living day in and day out with unpredictable pain makes it difficult to stay positive, but good mental health may help lessen pain.

Pain catastrophizing makes pain worse

Looking at things from a broad, balanced perspective is a part of mental health. However, a way of thinking known as catastrophizing, which involves people assuming the worst possible outcome, promotes pain, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

For example, a person experiencing back pain who feels he is doomed to suffer for the rest of his life will likely feel more pain than a person who adopts the nuanced view that some days will inevitably be good and others bad.

Managing mental health and pain, together

While many questions about the connection between mental health and pain remain unanswered, researchers do know that a person’s thoughts and feelings greatly influence their experience. But, what can you actually do about it?

The news is full of recommendations people can take to live better. Some tips are fads while others promote time-tested practices, but the noise can be overwhelming. Fortunately, researchers are also busy evaluating these claims and quantifying the benefits in an effort to identify the core practices that actually impact your quality of life.

Better health is within your reach. Keep in mind that all areas of health are related. Taking steps to improve physical health, for instance, improves mental health. And improved mental health can reduce chronic pain. And so while treating multiple health concerns can seem overwhelming, you’ll soon find that taking small steps leads to big rewards on various levels.

Here is our list of the research-backed, top six ways to live better. But, first, always remember that reaching out for help is crucial. If you try these tips and they don’t help, reach out to a professional for help. The National Alliance on Mental Illness lists resources for anyone struggling with mental health issues.

1. Meditate

Meditation is a centuries-old practice, but research is now quantifying its vast potential to reduce chronic pain and improve overall life quality.

Meditation helps us be more mindful, which means developing a greater awareness of the present moment. It’s easy to get caught up in the never-ending narrative inside our heads. However, this internal dialogue can worsen symptoms for people living with pain, anxiety, or depression.

Through meditation, practitioners learn to quiet mental chatter, which lowers stress levels and often reduces pain, or at least helps people better cope with it.

Through meditation, people also learn to have greater compassion and kindness towards themselves. This is important for those with chronic health concerns like pain. Pain patient and mindfulness expert Vidyamala Burch says the typical way of thinking about illness as a battle to be waged is not helpful.

Instead, developing compassion and kindness towards ourselves and others is the best way to feel better, she adds.

2. Sweat every day

Exercise is one of the single most important things you can to do improve your health. Sitting has become a nationwide epidemic, and health experts have even called sitting the new smoking because of its detrimental health impacts.

Counteract those long hours spent in chairs and on couches by sweating every day!

Researchers from James Cook University studied adults middle-aged and older and found that those who sweated every day lived longer. Scientists analyzed longevity trends among more than 200,000 people. Some of them participated in rigorous activities like jogging or tennis. Others exercised in more gentle ways, like swimming or slower, social tennis.

The findings revealed that those who made it a point to huff and puff were up to 13% less likely to die during the study period. Study author Dr. Klaus Gebel says:

“The results indicate that whether or not you are obese, and whether or not you have heart disease or diabetes, if you can manage some vigorous activity it could offer significant benefits for longevity.”

3. Reduce stress

High levels of stress not only decrease quality of life, but also contribute to arthritis, depression, heart problems, and diabetes, according to WebMD. It could also shorten your life.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that women under chronic stress had lower levels of a longevity hormone known as klotho. The hormone regulates aging processes and cognition, with lower levels contributing to a greater risk for disease and premature death.

Methods for reducing stress include exercising, taking time to relax, and meditating. You may also find journaling, listening to music, playing with a pet, or taking a walk helpful.

Whatever you do, don’t stress about stress! That worsens the feeling. Simply acknowledge it, and then take time to enjoy your favorite way of relieving the tension.

4. Eat whole foods

Eating a good diet is essential not just for physical health, but also for mental health. While the links between food and physical health are well known, research is increasingly driving home the importance of a healthy diet to feel better emotionally.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne found nutrients like B12, omega 3, magnesium, iron, and vitamin D promote brain health. Meanwhile, eating healthy foods also lowers the risk for depression and suicide, the study showed.

The researchers say prescriptions of nutrition could help people in counseling thrive. They recommend that mental health professionals include diet as an element of traditional psychiatry.

Earlier research showed that the stomach has a wide network of neurons—so many that scientists have dubbed it the second brain, according to Scientific American. Considering the stomach processes all the food we eat, this research underscores the significant connection between diet and mental health.

To live better, focus on a diet full of foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean proteins. A simple, nutritious meal could be as simple as roasted vegetables with a lean protein like chicken, fish, or even beans. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.

5. Cultivate friendships

Humans are social creatures. Even loners need friends. If you don’t have deep relationships, there is nothing wrong with you, so don’t be hard on yourself. But cultivating more social relationships is one of the most important things to do for your health, according to The Week.

If you could quantify the tools to live better, a more satisfying social life would be worth an additional $131,232 annually, reports The Week. You can’t buy friends or happiness, but sometimes putting a cost on things helps to put non-tangible factors into perspective.

Friends make you feel less alone, help you forget your worries, and make good times more memorable. If you’d like to meet people, try volunteering, taking part in a social activity like tennis, or saying “hi.” You never know where a simple hello will go.

6. Practice moderation

Moderation in all things is another top tip to live better. Eat chocolate, drink coffee, exercise, and eat good food—all in moderation, including moderation.

If life is a buffet, then living fully can be imagined as taking small servings from every choice. Some days call for celebration and cake. Others (most) call for kale and broccoli. Tuning into your body to figure out what choice best supports your wellbeing on any particular day is one of the most effective ways to live better.

What are your top tips to live better and improve your mental health and pain? Share your favorites in the comments!

Chronic pain and mood disorders can often go hand-in-hand. In fact, as many as 50% of people with chronic pain also have depression. It seems that one particular pair of conditions – depression and back pain – may be particularly widespread. Considering how often chronic pain and mood disorders can co-occur, this isn’t very surprising. After all, back pain is one of the most commonly-reported pain conditions, and depression is one of the most common mood disorders.

How many people are affected by depression and back pain? 

Both depression and back pain afflict a large number of people. Over 26 million people in the United States suffer from back pain, making it the leading cause of disability among people in the U.S. under the age of 45. People who have low back pain are commonly in poorer physical and mental health than people without low back pain.

Around 20.9 million people in the United States suffer from some sort of mood disorder. Out of these people, a whopping 14.8 million have depression. Depression can (and often does) co-occur with other mood disorders, as well as with illnesses, pain, and medical conditions.

Why do they occur together? 

Back pain and depression often co-occur, largely because it’s possible for each condition to cause (or worsen) the other.

Dealing with chronic back pain can cause a lot of stress. Back pain can even affect a person’s ability to work, interfere with relationships, and chip away at self-esteem. Sleep can be disrupted by back pain, and the ensuing fatigue can further decrease quality of life.

Back pain can also make physical activity difficult or unappealing. Even if, in the long run, physical activity might help with back pain, it can initially be hard to get started or cause some aches and pains. Lessened physical fitness can further reduce self-esteem and interfere with relationships.

Aside from the effects of back pain, the pain itself can increase the risk of depression. It’s easy to focus on pain, which can magnify its effects. The higher the perception of pain is, the more likely it is to cause depression. Once depression has set in, it can cause emotional interpretations of pain, which lead to increased perception of pain. In other words, pain worsens depression, and depression worsens pain, which further worsens pain. As is obvious, the cycle can go around and around, worsening steadily over time if there is no intervention.

Just as back pain can lead to depression, depression can lead to back pain. Sleep disturbance, social withdrawal, difficulty at work, lowered self-esteem, and withdrawal from activities can all occur with depression. Additionally, many people experience physical symptoms, like pain, as a result of depression. Indeed, for some people, physical pain may be the primary symptom of their depression.

Medication use

Also, some overuse or abuse of some medications can lead to depression. Opioids, for instance, are a pain medication, but they carry a high risk of abuse, addiction, and depression. Unfortunately, when depression is causing or contributing to back pain, treating the back pain is unlikely to work unless paired with treatment for depression.

This can lead to feelings of hopelessness about ineffective treatment, which can further exacerbate depression and the risk for overuse of pain medications.

Recent research 

Recent research suggests there may be deeper reasons for the common co-occurrence of back pain and depression.

A study carried out by researchers at UC Irvine and UCLA examined the brains of rodents with chronic pain. They found that chronic pain can cause brain inflammation. This pain-derived brain inflammation causes faster growth and activation of a type of immune cell, called microglia. Microglia cells trigger chemical signals that restrict dopamine release. Dopamine aids in controlling the reward and pleasure centers of the brain, but it’s also involved in pain responses. As noted on Scientific American’s blog, it’s also involved in depressive behavior:

“[D]opamine could also be important in major depressive disorder. People with depression often exhibit reduced motivation, anhedonia (a decrease in pleasure from usually enjoyed things), sometimes motor decreases as well. All of these are linked with dopamine.”

Opioid pain medications also work by triggering the release of dopamine. However, the pain-derived brain inflammation and its resultant increased microglia cells mean that opioids can fail to trigger a dopamine response. This explains why opioids are often ineffective in treating chronic pain. If further research can continue to explain the mechanisms behind the relationship between chronic pain and depression, a targeted, more effective therapy can be developed.

Researchers are also considering the possibility of genetics playing a role. Data concerning over 2,000 twins was analyzed to look for genetic factors relating to both back pain and depression. Interestingly, the group with the strongest association between back pain and depression was the non-identical twin group. When identical pairs of twins were considered, the association disappeared.

Treating depression and back pain

Just as the development of back pain and depression can go hand-in-hand, treatment for these conditions can work together, too.

Treating a person’s pain while ignoring his or her depression can prove ineffective, and treating his or her depression while ignoring his or her pain can be ineffective, too. However, just because treating one or the other may not solve both issues completely doesn’t mean it can’t help, as explained at Everyday Health:

“What’s interesting about back pain and depression is that they seem to be so closely tied that getting depression relief may actually lead to back pain relief… On the flip side of the coin, getting back pain relief can also help the depression improve.”

Therefore, treating one or the other is much better than treating neither.

The best case scenario, though, is undergoing treatment for both back pain and depression. The first step in getting treatment is discussing all issues, physical, mental, and emotional, with a primary care physician. From there, the physician should be able to suggest specialists and coordinate treatment for both conditions.

But, one of the first steps to treating it is actually knowing if you have depression to begin with. Here’s how to diagnose this condition.

How to diagnose depression

You find yourself snapping at your kids. Maybe your temper flares more often in traffic. You don’t seem to have as much patience as you normally do, or small things get under your skin more than they used to. On top of that, your back has started hurting right around your shoulders, so much so that it can be hard to fall asleep at night. The signs of depression don’t always show up on a billboard; you may be suffering from depression and not realize it. One in four people suffer from some form of mental illness in their lives, but we still have a hard time bringing this “hidden illness” into light. Here are a few ways to do that.

What to watch for 

Depression can manifest itself in sometimes hidden ways. The most common signs of depression are:

• Changes in appetite
• Changes in sleep habits
• Low energy or fatigue
• Withdrawal or social isolation
• Feelings of worthlessness

Some people may experience these common signs in uncommon ways, such as:

• Increase in anger or irritability: You may be short-tempered or quick to anger or snappish
• More mood swings: You may find yourself going from one extreme to another in a flash
• Anxiety in social situations: You may experience anxiety in situations where you previously felt none
• Physical pain not related to injury: Pain in the hips, lower back, and shoulders indicate chronic clenching or stress

Some of these may be triggered by traumatic events. Some may be as a result of treatment for another condition. Regardless, it is important to talk to your doctor if these symptoms persist. Consider this first meeting a fact-finding session more than a diagnosis, and go in with an open mind (and heart).

Talk about it

If you have suffered from periods of depression or anxiety, it can be helpful to others going through a similar experience to know they are not alone. Depression can be socially isolating. The depressed person often feels alone and may question if anyone cares about them. Remind them that they are loved, you get it, and you are here for them. Often a person suffering from depression is plagued with the idea that they are their illness.

National Institue of Mental Health director Thomas Insel believes we should discuss mental illness in the same way we discuss things like cardiovascular disease, noting:

“We need to talk about mental disorders the way we talk about other medical disorders. We generally don’t let having a medical illness define a person’s identity, yet we are very cautious about revealing mental illness because it will somehow define a person’s competence or even suggest dangerousness.”

Don’t ignore it

Ninety percent of people who commit suicide suffer from mental illness, often undiagnosed. If you or someone you love is showing signs of depression that are persistent and lasting longer than two months, it is important to not ignore it.

There are ways to ease into conversations about sadness and depression, but sometimes we feel awkward and uneasy, especially when the depression may be related to grief or a traumatic event. When someone has died, we may hesitate to bring up that person for fear of “triggering” depression, but chances are good that talking about it may be just the thing that encourages someone to seek help.

Depression and back pain are a complicated and often related set of conditions. If you suffer from these conditions, head to the comments to share how you’ve dealt with them in your own life. 

Self-affirmation is the practice of expressing positivity about yourself. It can be stated aloud, said in your head, or written down. While some may scoff or assume that it’s pointless, science is proving that self-affirmation and positive thinking can have measurably positive effects on people.

What are the benefits of positive thinking?

So far, the clearest benefit to self-affirmation is its ability to encourage changes in health behavior.

When you’re told by a physician (or friend or family member) that you must make a life change, it’s not uncommon to become defensive. For instance, when your doctor tries to convince you to stop smoking, you stop listening or get irritated. If your aunt tells you that you need to lose weight, you might respond by getting upset or even binge-eating.

More receptive to health changes and advice

Self-affirmation and positive thinking, however, can make you more receptive to health advice. A team of researchers set out to get sedentary adults to be more active by utilizing self-affirmation. First they examined the brains of participants with imaging equipment while the participants were given health advice. In people who did a self-affirmation exercise prior to receiving health advice, a key part of the brain was more active. This part of the brain, called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), is believed to be involved in processing self-relevance.

Additionally, the people who did self-affirmation did a better job of following the health advice and were more active in the next few months. In another experiment, text messages were sent to sedentary adults, encouraging them to stand up or do some sort of activity. When the health advice was paired with some form of affirmation, the people receiving the text message were more active.

Alter unhealthy habits

Self-affirmation, used in conjunction with health advice, can help facilitate changes in other areas, in addition to activity level. All of the following has a better chance of changing with positive thinking:

• Alcohol consumption
• Unsafe sex
• Inactivity
• Cigarette smoking
• Caffeine consumption
• Poor diet

Increase regular medical screenings

People may also be more willing to follow through on medical screening and treatment if they participate in self-affirmation. This may be due to self-affirmation’s ability to help the brain accept changes more easily.

However, it may also be due to the simple fact that refocusing someone onto a positive topic (such as positive thinking) rather than a negative one (like the possibility of undesirable test results) can make him or her less likely to avoid threatening or scary information.

Improve task performance 

You might also be able to perform some tasks better by doing self-affirmation.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University conducted a study on how well college students could perform problem-solving tasks. Unsurprisingly, since chronic stress can have serious negative impacts on mental and physical health, students who’d been suffering from chronic stress didn’t perform as well as those without stress.

Doing a self-affirmation exercise prior to the problem-solving tasks, though, made quite a difference. After some self-affirmation, the chronically stressed students were able to perform at the same level as the students without chronic stress.

In another study, two groups of people performed a simple, quick-response task. One group had done self-affirmation beforehand, but the other had not. When they got a task right, both groups had the same level of brain response. However, when they got the task wrong, the self-affirmation group had notably higher levels of brain response. According to the study’s authors, this suggests that doing self-affirmation may make people more aware of their own mistakes and able to correct those mistakes.

The power of positive thinking for chronic pain patients

Self-affirmation may also help people with chronic pain control their discomfort.

The many benefits associated with positive thinking, such as increased receptivity to health advice and more willingness to undergo medical tests or treatments, could have a serious benefit on pain levels. Increased receptivity to physicians’ advice might mean better adherence to medication instructions or more willingness to try an anti-inflammatory diet. More willingness to undergo tests or treatments could lead to better diagnoses and treatment.

Also, in the mentioned study with the college students, self-affirmation was able to reverse the effects of chronic stress on problem solving. Stress and pain are tightly connected and can have a strong influence on each other. Therefore, if positive thinking is able to counter some of the effects of chronic stress, it could also help lower pain levels.

Self-affirmation can also offer some potential relief during serious pain flares. In her blog Chronic Pain Life, Stephanie offers resources and suggestions to help people live with chronic pain. Many of her suggested pain-management techniques utilize mindfulness, meditation, or artistic outlets (such as photography or journaling).

In one blog post, she describes the affirmations she uses when suffering from intense pain, stating:

“I seriously couldn’t function without them. In a pain flare-up they prevent me from entering a spiral of negative thoughts that in the past led to depression and even suicidal thoughts. Sometimes I only have to repeat the affirmations a couple of times, while other times I have to read them over and over throughout the day. They have helped me make it through another moment, another hour, another day.”

How to practice more positive thinking

The last time you encountered a hectic workweek, opened yet another expensive repair bill, or suffered through a day of chronic pain, what did you think about? Although everyone experiences stress, not everyone handles it the same way.

Changing your thought process related to these events can reduce associated stress. Additionally, changing your perception can help uncover positive solutions and maybe even bring a little peace. This process of positive thinking takes time, so be patient with yourself. Here’s some ways to get started.

Practice self-affirmations

Practicing self-affirmations can be done in any way you want, as long as you end up feeling better. In many of the studies surrounding self-affirmation, the exercises involve arranging different topics into order of personal importance. Some of these topics might include:

• Family
• Friends
• Art
• Accomplishments
• Hobbies
• Job

Once you’ve figured out which topic is most important in your life, write (or simply think about) a couple sentences describing why it’s so important to you, as well as how you demonstrate this. For example, if family is most important in your life, you might write, “My family is important to me because I know they’re always there to support me. I demonstrate how important my family is to me by spending as much time as I can with them, even when I’m tired or hurting.”

If there’s something specific you’re unhappy about, write down a list of ways to change it. For example, you may wish you had a better connection with your colleagues, write down a list of present-tense sentences about what you can do to accomplish that – such as “I am courteous and patient to my coworkers,” or “When I ask how someone’s doing, I really listen to their answer.” You can repeat your affirmations to yourself as often as you want. If you practice meditation or breathing exercises, you can even incorporate your affirmations into your routine.

Take a few deep breaths

Life sometimes looks rosier after inhaling more oxygen. Deep, long breathing calms the body’s stress response, lowers the heart rate, and gives you something to focus on besides the stressor.

Remember that the worst thing rarely happens

A lot of stress comes not from what’s actually happening, but worries about what could happen, including worst-case scenarios. Think back over your life. How many times has the worst-case scenario actually happened?

If you find yourself ruminating on all of the potential disasters that could befall you should you fail to complete all the tasks on your list, take a deep breath. Pick one thing, the most important thing, and do that. When you feel overwhelmed, take a walk, listen to music, or engage in some other healthy outlet. Unless it’s life or death, it can wait.

Review the situation and analyze the things you can control and those you can’t

Has your boss completely overloaded you with work? Is your husband not helping with housework? Are tight finances stressing you out? Ask for help. Let the people affected know you’re overwhelmed, ask for a deadline extension, get help with washing dishes, or find a financial counselor. Asking for help can seem scary, but your mental well-being is more important.

With chronic stress, like any illness or disease, sometimes it helps to focus on what you do have. You’re alive, you have a beautiful beating heart, and you probably have family members and friends who love you. If you can walk, walk and feel your legs moving and enjoy the air on your skin.

Even under more serious stress, think about what you can control. Maybe you can exercise or eat better or try meditation. Nobody has complete control over their life, but everyone has some small step they can take right now to improve their circumstances and reduce stress.

And what you can’t control? Try to accept it and let go. Although easier said than done, greater acceptance brings peace, further lessening stress.

What tips do you have to think positive?

Feeling sad, anxious, lonely, or depressed can make you feel isolated, especially if you’re suffering from chronic pain. Maybe you think nobody understands or you’re afraid of telling those around you how you feel. Reaching out for help may seem difficult. You may not know where to turn, or feel embarrassed about your suffering. Know that there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Getting help is the best possible thing to do. Fortunately, many mental health resources are available to connect people with help, whether online, by the phone, or on your smart device. Here’s how to find help.

1. Call a hotline

For those feeling suicidal or experiencing a crisis that requires immediate help, call the National Suicide Prevention hotline by dialing 1-800-273-TALK. The call will be routed to a trained counselor at the nearest crisis center. Callers may remain anonymous while getting the help they need.

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration also offers a helpline, available Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. The number is 877-726-4727, and callers can receive information about services and treatments available in their area.

2. Call your doctor

Although many doctors, including primary care physicians, may not have studied mental illness specifically, they will be tapped into the resources available in your community. A doctor can recommend a skilled and compassionate therapist or offer a referral for a relevant support group or organization.

3. Tap into online mental health resources

When faced with overwhelming stress and mental health issues, you may be more comfortable looking online for support.  Sometimes your loved ones may be the source of the stress (for example, if you are the primary caregiver of someone with a terminal illness), or you may be uncomfortable talking with family or friends about a mental health issue. Online support groups can offer community and caring that is anonymous and available 24/7.

Mental Health America

This nationwide non-profit runs 240 affiliates in 41 states and offers a variety of support services and referrals to connect people who need help with the services best suited to their situation.

Their website offers a search tool that enables visitors to find a nearby affiliate. They also have other resources on their website, including a link for local support groups, online options, and even a crisis hotline if you need to speak with someone immediately.  Scroll down and you will find 100+ links for specific issues that include stress, grief, issues for primary caregivers, and much more.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

This non-profit organization offers affiliates in all 50 states, and can serve as a clearinghouse for other services and support systems. Visit the affiliate search page to find your local office.

NAMI also runs a hotline, reachable by calling 1-800-950-6264, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time. Through the hotline, callers may receive general information about mental health issues or referrals to support organizations. Trained volunteers are also on hand to lend a compassionate ear.

Daily Strength

Another great resource to find online help is Daily Strength. Their alphabetized list has support for everything from abstinence and celibacy to Zellweger Syndrome and everything in between! If you are looking for an online therapist, they have references for that as well.

Mental health blogs

Sometimes it can be helpful to read the experiences of others and develop community that way.

Blogs have revolutionized how we share our human experience, and there are many excellent blogs on mental health issues and stress.  Reading blogs, commenting on them, and even starting your own can be a great way to manage stress or process depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues.

Message boards

Another online resource is message boards. These boards can act as a way to compare experiences, ask for resources, and just get suggestions on dealing with an issue. There are many boards online. Try to find a board with lots of members who are very active, and follow the same rules of any online support group: if you feel you are being harassed or taken advantage of, report the offender to the moderator and leave if the issue is not resolved.

You can find more information about free therapy options online here.

How to stay safe online

However you choose to get support online, always stay safe in your interactions.

Do not give out personal information that could direct someone to your house or your family, and follow your instincts when it comes to your interactions. There are some people who would take advantage of the vulnerable state of people in online support situations.

The key is a good moderator who is proactive and protective. Following a few safety guidelines will make your experience more positive and allow you to get the support you need!

4. Use your phone

If you’re like the average adult in the United States, there are few times in your day when you are not holding your smart phone in your hands. If you’re not, it is nearby and easily accessible. Whether good or bad, we are a culture that is tethered to our devices.

When it comes to managing mental health resources, the smart phone may be one of our greatest allies. Smart phone mobile apps exist to help people track their exercise and diet. People can tap into a variety of tools to help them with daily productivity. Can similar platforms help people with their mental health care as well?

Benefits of smart phones for mental health

In November of 2014, Newsweek presented a report on the lack of technology available for individuals dealing with a variety of mental illnesses. It speaks to the stigma and isolation that many feel when it comes to sharing their stories. Perhaps there is an erroneous belief that if no apps exist for tracking mental illness, the mental illness itself doesn’t exist.

The report discussed several recent projects that are exploring the way technology can be used to address mental illness in the United States. One in four adults is directly affected by some level of mental illness and 6% live with a more serious diagnosis. At the same time, there are still a staggering number of people in our country without access to mental health care.

The researchers believe that technology could bridge this gap. Rather than requiring patients to jump through a variety of increasingly difficult hoops just to start the diagnosis process, they can use an easily downloadable app. Let’s look at what some recent studies have had to say about smart phone apps and mental illness.

Making the diagnosis process easier

In July of 2014, researchers at the American Friends of Tel Aviv University published a reportabout an application they developed that would kick off the diagnosis process and reach more patients affected by mental health issues than traditional methods.

Ninety percent of reported suicides are attributed to mental health issues and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it has the largest burden of any disease on social and economic infrastructures around the world. The urgency to address this issue is only increasing, but the tools at the disposal of medical professionals are sorely outdated. This new technology from Tel Aviv University could be the essential piece missing from most traditional treatments.

The observable indicators of mental health are generally behavioral. Since most people already have smart phones at their disposal, tapping into this technology seems like the most obvious next step. The smart phone can monitor behavioral patterns that are typical of a variety of mental health issues.

From Dr. Uri Nivo:

“Bipolar disorder, for example, starts with a manic episode. A patient who usually makes five or ten calls a day might suddenly start making dozens of calls a day. How much they talk, text, how many places they visit, when they go to bed and for how long — these are all indicators of mental health and provide important insights to clinicians who want to catch a disorder before it is full blown.”

The application will have significant privacy protections built in so the information is only accessible by the patient’s trusted medical professional team.

Tracking behavior patterns and mental health indicators

Another research team, this time at Dartmouth College, had a similar thought. In September of last year they released this study of a new app that tracked the behavior of college students. The Android app, called StudentLife, compared relative happiness, stress, depression, and loneliness to academic performance. Using algorithms, the app can monitor these aspects of the students’ lives to determine if there is concerning behavior. Both passive and automatic sensor data from the phones showed strong correlations between the students’ mental health and performance in school.

For example, students who have better sleep habits and more social interaction were less likely to experience depression. Class attendance was not an indicator of overall wellness. Students who had more conversations were more likely to have higher grade point averages than their counterparts. In fact, the sensor data on the app was able to predict the student GPAs based on their behavioral patterns.

The initial study avoided providing feedback to the students in an effort to appropriately gauge the correlations between behavior, performance, and depression. However, in practice, feedback and intervention would be a key component of the apps function.

The future of smart phones as mental health resources

Recently, a Kickstarter campaign was successful in raising the funds to develop a smartphone app that can facilitate conversation and support for individuals dealing with the impact of mental illness.

With the popularity of Fitbit and other apps and smart devices that can help people track their physical health, it only makes sense to develop components for mental health. Mental health is often something that requires long-term support so our culture needs to shed the stigma of defectiveness that comes with a diagnosis and work on the ways mental health patients can get the help they need when they need it.

If you or someone you care about could benefit from additional support in the form of smart phone apps, there are a variety currently available. This directory from PsychCentral is a great starting place. All of the apps listed are free. The apps are designed for several conditions including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As always, when dealing with major health concerns, whether physical, emotional, or mental, consult with your doctor about the best treatments for you.

These are just the beginning of mental health resources you can find to help. Hit the comments to share your favorites as well. 

How many times have you rolled around in bed wondering why you are still awake? It is never fun to go through the next day exhausted, but that could be the least of your problems—your body can suffer in many different ways from sleep deprivation effects. This is doubly true if you also suffer from chronic pain, with 65% of patients reporting sleep issues.

What are common sleep deprivation effects? 

We spend one-third of our life sleeping. It’s essential for a sharp mind and a healthy body. This is doubly true for those who suffer from chronic pain conditions as adequate rest can have a huge impact on pain levels.

How much sleep should you get? According to the CDC, the average adult should get seven to nine hours of sleep a night and children should get ten to 11 hours. These are usually broken into 90-minute cycles, and the quality of sleep is also very important. If you are not entering REM sleep, you aren’t getting the true benefits of sleep, so you have to be mindful of your sleeping patterns. It is estimated that 50 – 70 million adults in the U.S. have sleep difficulties.

This number is even higher in those patients who are afflicted with chronic pain as 65% report having a sleeping disorder, such as non-restorative or disruptive sleep. A major issue with sleep deprivation is that it can increase a person’s sensitivity to pain, among other things, which perpetuates a vicious cycle of sleepless nights and worsening pain. Managing your pain and your sleeping habits can greatly affect your overall mental and physical health.

Once you understand the full sleep deprivation effects, we bet you’ll be motivated to try and change your sleeping habits for good!

1. Minor sleep loss can be just like drinking alcohol

Not getting enough sleep can have some big effects on your brain and every other organ in your body. According to Jeffrey P. Barasch, M.D., Medical Director of The Valley Hospital Center for Sleep Medicine, a two hours loss of sleep can have effects similar to alcohol intoxication.

Sleep deprivation leads to a reduction in judgement, response speed, motor skills, and accuracy, some of which are even greater than alcohol consumption. Some tests showed response speeds were 50% worse than drinking, so think twice about getting behind the wheel next time you have a sleepless night.

2. Lack of sleep can lead to emotional vulnerability and negative thinking

Various sleep studies have shown that not getting enough rest can wreak havoc on your mental state. It can impair thinking and emotional regulation in the brain. Specifically, it changes your mindset to one that is more vulnerable to further degradation. It can include symptoms such as:

• Irritability
• Hallucinations
• Impaired decision-making abilities
• Mood swings

Sleep problems can also have long-term effects on the mind. It can:

• Impair creative thinking
• Reduce focus
• Lower work or school productivity
• Greatly increase your chances of developing depression and anxiety

It is believed that patients with untreated insomnia are between two and ten times more likely to have or develop major depression episodes. It can also exacerbate preexisting conditions such as bipolar disorder and ADHD.

3. Increased risk of serious cardiovascular health problems

Sleep is critical to the body’s repair and recovery process. People who routinely do not get enough sleep are at a much higher risk for developing numerous other diseases as the body does not have time to effectively carry out this procedure. These diseases include:

• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Stroke
• Diabetes

In a Harvard Medical School study, it was found that people with hypertension, who did not get adequate sleep, will have elevated blood pressure all throughout the following day. Another study found that those with insomnia had a 45% increase of developing or dying from a cardiovascular disease.

4. Risk of increased weight gain

New research by the University of Chicago Medical Center shows that a decrease in sleep leads to more cravings of higher fat snacks. This sleep deprivation effects study showed that when offered food, sleep deprived participants reported higher scores for hunger and desire to eat and ate twice as much fat than when they had eight hours of sleep.

The reason this leads to weight gain is that the additional hours awake do not expend the extra calories that are consumed. In the study, the average person burned an additional 70 calories from losing four hours of sleep, but binged an additional 300 calories. Erin Hanlon, PhD, a research associate in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at the University of Chicago stated that:

“If you’re sleep deprived, your hedonic drive for certain foods gets stronger, and your ability to resist them may be impaired. So you are more likely to eat it. Do that again and again, and you pack on the pounds.”

5. Insomnia can lead to more sleepless nights and chronic pain

A major issue with insomnia and pain is that you can be caught in a destructive loop. Chronic pain conditions can harm a quality sleep cycle and poor sleep can lower a patient’s pain threshold and pain tolerance, which makes existing pain feel even more severe.

While sleeping pills are an option to get more sleep, they can interact poorly with other medications. Furthermore, a study showed that lack of sleep can also counteract the effectiveness of medication for many conditions.

6. Reduces the effectiveness of your immune system

The effects of sleep deprivation can really do a number on your immune system. The Mayo Clinic states that lack of quality sleep can raise the risk of infection as well as increase the recovery time from being ill.

The reason for this is that certain proteins (cytokines) are released when the body is fighting infections and inflammation and their production is decreased when you are low on sleep.

How to get better sleep for pain management

We have all had nights where we toss and turn without getting any sleep. There are a lot of things that can interfere with a person’s sleep cycle, from stress at work to family responsibilities to chronic pain. With all the stress of our daily lives, it’s a true challenge to figure out how to get better sleep.

Sleep can be a wonderful relief to a long day regardless if it was filled with work or play, but only if it is quality sleep. Here are a handful of tricks and tips that will show you how to get better sleep, so you can fill your night with the ZZZs you need and avoid these sleep deprivation effects.

1. Stick to a sleep schedule

Getting your body in the habit of going to sleep and waking up the same time each day will improve the quality of your sleep quite a bit.

A consistent sleep schedule allows you to match up with your body’s natural sleep cycle (AKA circadian rhythm) and will leave you more refreshed and energized than sticking to an erratic sleeping pattern.

2. Get comfortable and control your sleeping environment

Creating a nighttime ritual to wind down before bed will also improve sleep quality. This can include breathing and visualization techniques to calm the mind. You can also try reading a book, listening to music, or taking a relaxing bath or shower.

Make sure your bedroom is cool, quiet, and relaxing for you. It is also smart to make sure your bed and pillows adequately meet your needs as they can greatly influence your sleep quality.

3. Avoid sleeping in or long naps

Trying to figure out how to get better sleep, but your weekends and weekdays are completely different? It is easy to sleep in after a busy week or a long night out, but even a change of an hour in your natural sleep schedule can cause sleep problems.

Your best bet to more quality sleep is to avoid sleeping in on weekends and instead take short naps in the early afternoon to avoid throwing off your internal clock. Otherwise, this extra sleep could mess up your sleep schedule for days! Also important to note, if you are fighting bouts of insomnia at night, consider eliminating napping or heavily limiting it to 15 minutes.

4. Be mindful of light exposure

Sunlight plays a large role in how our bodies regulate a variety of functions, but most certainly our sleep patterns. Try to get as much light (preferably natural) as you can in the mornings and afternoons.

When night rolls around, avoid heavy light (i.e. TVs, computers, etc.) at least an hour before you go to bed as overexposure reduces melatonin production, the hormone that signals the brain that it is time for sleep. It is also a good idea to make sure that you are sleeping in a dark room and away from technology like blinking cell phones or bright digital clocks.

5. Look at your eating habits and diet 

The food you eat during the day can definitely affect how you sleep. This is doubly true for food and beverages ingested a few hours before bed. Heavy meals can be tough on the stomach and, while alcohol can relax the body, it also has disruptive effects on your sleep cycle.

Instead, try to keep late night snacks to something healthy like granola or a banana. It is also best to cut out nicotine and caffeine after lunchtime as these substances can take up to ten hours to wear off and can be a main culprit of poor quality sleep.

6. Try cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) 

New research out of the University of Warwick shows that CBT has moderate to strong effectiveness at reducing insomnia, specifically for patients with chronic pain conditions. This is particularly important as long-term pharmaceutical options for insomnia are not viable and can interact poorly with pain management medications.

According to Dr Nicole Tang, from the University’s Department of Psychology:

“This study is particularly important because the use of drugs to treat insomnia is not recommended over a long period of time therefore the condition needs to be addressed using a non-pharmacological treatment. We believe that our results will be of particular interest to primary care physicians and allied health professionals who are taking up an increasingly important role in preventing and managing long-term conditions.”

7. Eliminate the clutter in your bedroom

Today, many bedrooms are multifunctional rather than just being somewhere we sleep. More and more people use their bedroom as an office or entertainment room, which can affect your sleep patterns.

Try to simplify the room by removing these distractions and it might just help you relax when you lay down for bed.

8. Get moving and exercise!

Exercise in the mornings or afternoons can be quite energizing. It is also vital to keeping the body’s natural rhythm on check while promoting healthy sleep. Various studies have shown that moderate aerobic exercise can reduce the time it takes to fall asleep and increase the length of sleep of those who suffer from sleeping disorders.

(Do note that you want to avoid exercise at least four hours before bedtime, since it does elevate your heart rate.)

Still wondering how to get better sleep? Hit the comments with what’s worked for you and read what techniques and strategies others have used to get a good night’s sleep.