Browsing by Author "Lavanko, Saila-Maaria"

Aims of the study. Evidence from previous studies suggest that poor sleep quality is associated with the experience of pain, and animal models show that the quality of REM sleep is important for pain sensitivity. However, the possible associations between REM sleep fragmentation and the subjective experience of pain in humans have not been studied before. The aim of this study was to examine whether REM sleep fragmentation percent is associated with self-reported multisite pain, meaning pain occurring in two or more pain sites, and/or with self-reported pain in general. The relationship between subjective sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) and multisite pain was also examined. Methods. The data used in this study consisted of the sleep EEG data collected from 135 adolescents aged 16-17 (61% girls) in an urban community-based cohort. Linear and logistic regressions were used to explore the associations between REM sleep fragmentation, self-reported pain symptoms and multisite pain, and logistic regressions were used to explore the association between PSQI score and multisite pain. Anxiety symptoms and depression symptoms were included in the models as control variables and their independent effect was also of interest. Results and conclusions. No statistically significant relationships were found between REM sleep fragmentation and multisite pain. Additionally, no statistically significant relationships were found between REM sleep fragmentation and self-reported pain symptoms. However, there was a statistically significant relationship found between PSQI score and multisite pain. The results do not support the hypothesis that REM sleep fragmentation would be associated with the experience of pain. The relationship between sleep and pain is complex and understanding the processes and underlying mechanisms of this connection warrants further research. Results indicate that sleep problems in adolescence may be a risk factor for experiencing more pain. The results of this study provide information for clinical application and suggest that it might be possible to prevent multisite pain by enhancing the quality of sleep.