Insomnia

Pain commonly keeps people awake, and medicine that can reduce your pain may help you sleep better. Some pain medicines that are taken during the day can wear off during the night.

It is common for a variety of painful conditions to worsen at night. This may result in part due to an increased accumulation of fluid in joints, vertebral disks, and spaces within the skeletal system such as "bursa" spaces and compartments through which tendons pass.

Examples of conditions that can cause increased symptoms at night include

• back pain from vertebral disk disease
• carpal tunnel syndrome
• bursitis in the shoulder or elsewhere.

You should discuss your pain with your doctor, to see if this symptom can be relieved. You should not pursue other evaluation or treatment for your insomnia until your pain problem is addressed.

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Online Medical Reviewer: Faculty of Harvard Medical School Date Last Reviewed: 8/18/2006 Date Last Modified: 8/7/2006 Source: from Harvard Health Decision Guides, Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.

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