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Body pain can develop due to poor sleep
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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A group of researchers at the University of Kiel discovered that poor sleep, which is accompanied by frequent night awakenings, problems falling asleep, etc., can lead to pain and aches throughout the body, especially in older people.
According to experts, 15% of women and 10% of men over the age of fifty experience pain in their bodies every day, and 80% of people face this problem after they have already crossed the 65-year mark. The research group analyzed more than four thousand people over the age of fifty who did not suffer from any pain. After three years, about three thousand people began to experience discomfort, a little more than one and a half thousand did not notice any changes in their bodies, and about a thousand people already suffered from chronic pain, while 25% of this category of people had previously experienced other types of pain.
The researchers also took into account psychological factors, physical condition, and educational level of the volunteers.
A more detailed study led experts to the conclusion that the occurrence of persistent pain was associated with poor sleep quality, i.e. those volunteers who took part in the studies who felt tired, exhausted after waking up, and felt sleep-deprived after a night's rest were more at risk of developing pain throughout the body.
In addition to poor sleep, scientists noted increased anxiety and low social status among the risk factors.
When analyzing the brain activity of the participants, scientists came to the conclusion that those who were prone to chronic pain had various sleep disorders. As the experts noted, if a completely healthy person is awakened during a period of deep sleep, then all the symptoms that develop will resemble those that arise with chronic pain.
Experts recommend adjusting your morning awakening to your own biorhythms (since they are individual for each person). Scientists are sure that it is not about how long a person sleeps, but about what phase of sleep the awakening occurred in.
Previously, scientists have already discovered a connection between sleep problems and the development of diseases. For example, a connection was found in women who had problems falling asleep and the development of fibromyalgia (a disease characterized by pain in the muscles, tendons and ligaments). Such pain is very similar to that caused by arthritis, but with one difference: with fibromyalgia, the joints are not deformed or destroyed. During the study, scientists found a strong connection between various sleep disorders and the development of fibromyalgia among adult women. Fibromyalgia is more common in women; according to some data, approximately 6% of the world's population suffers from this disease. As studies have shown, in general, 3% of women are susceptible to this disease, but if a woman over 45 has sleep problems, the risks of developing fibromyalgia increase many times over.
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