[Better Sleep and Less Pain? Sleep Training in Orthopedic Rehabilitation]

There is high comorbidity between chronic pain and insomnia. Not only does chronic pain impair sleep, poor sleep quality can also exacerbate the sensation of pain. However, usually, the respective symptoms are treated separately. We evaluate a new cognitive behavioral sleep-pain-training aiming at improving symptoms of both insomnia and chronic pain in the setting of ambulant orthopedic rehabilitation.

N=41 patients participated in the study (with 15 participants being enrolled in the control group). The training consists of 4 modules á 90min and was explicitly developed for patients suffering from chronic pain and comorbid insomnia. It includes several methods of cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of insomnia and pain (e. g., sleep hygiene, sleep restriction, sleep-pain-protocol, cognitive restructuring) and specifically addresses the relationship between the two. Sleep quality, sleep related thoughts (focusing, rumination), internal health locus of control, pain intensity (day and night) as well as pain related thoughts (pain related anxiety, pain related depression/helplessness) were assessed pre and post training by means of a questionnaire.

Mixed ANOVAS revealed small (η²=: 0,010) to medium (η²=: 0,068) interaction effects for most dependent variables (sleep quality, sleep efficiency, focusing, rumination, internal health locus of control, average day and night pain, maximum night pain, pain related anxiety and pain related depression/helplessness) for the interaction of time and group. However, effects for rumination and average day pain were not significant. There was no interaction effect for maximum day pain. Effect sizes for single group analyses revealed medium (internal sleep locus of control: d=0,52) to large (sleep quality: d=1,73) significant effects for the training group and no (focusing: d=0,00) to small (maximum day pain: d=-0,43) and non-significant effects for the control group.

The training analyzed in this study may constitute a complement to existing treatment possibilities for patients suffering from chronic pain and should be further evaluated in larger samples.