Opioids, sleep, and cancer-related fatigue

Oddly enough, little is known about the effects on sleep of commonly administered analgesic medications. Even less is known about their effect on next-day fatigue, mood, and cognitive functioning. We speculate that part of the fatigue typically experienced by cancer patients can be attributed to disruption of sleep by opioid medications they are taking. Fatigue and sleep are critical to the quality of life of cancer patients. Research is needed to assess the sleep and next-day consequences that can be expected from typical doses of different types of pain medications.