Berkeley

Why Losing Sleep is One of the Worst Things You Can Do To Your Body

Published

6 years ago

January 31, 2019

When we’re in pain, we have a hard time sleeping. But how does poor sleep affect pain? For the first time, UC Berkeley scientists have answered that question by identifying neural glitches in the sleep-deprived brain that can intensify and prolong the agony of sickness and injury.

Their findings, published Jan. 28 in the Journal of Neuroscience, help explain the self-perpetuating cycles contributing to the overlapping global epidemics of sleep loss, chronic pain and even opioid addiction.

A 2015 National Sleep Foundation poll found that two in three chronic pain patients suffer from reoccurring sleep disruptions.

“If poor sleep intensifies our sensitivity to pain, as this study demonstrates, then sleep must be placed much closer to the center of patient care, especially in hospital wards,” said study senior author Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology.

By applying uncomfortable levels of heat to the legs of two dozen healthy young adults — while scanning their brains — Walker and UC Berkeley Ph.D. student Adam Krause found that the neural mechanisms that pick up on pain signals, evaluate them and activate natural pain relief are disrupted when operating on insufficient sleep.

While researchers proved their hypothesis that sleep deprivation would increase pain sensitivity — as demonstrated by an amped-up response in the brain’s somatosensory cortex — what surprised them was ramped-down activity in the nucleus accumbens, a region of the brain’s reward circuitry that, among other functions, increases dopamine levels to relieve pain.

“Sleep loss not only amplifies the pain-sensing regions in the brain, but blocks the natural analgesia centers, too,” Walker said.

Another key brain region found to slow down in the sleep-deprived brain was the insula, which evaluates pain signals and places them in context to prepare the body to respond.

“This is a critical neural system that assesses and categorizes the pain signals and allows the body’s own natural painkillers to come to the rescue,” said Krause, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in Walker’s Center for Human Sleep Science lab at UC Berkeley.

To further test the sleep-pain connection in more common daily-life scenarios, researchers surveyed more than 230 adults of all ages nationwide via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk online marketplace.

Respondents were asked to report their nightly hours of sleep as well as their day-to-day pain levels over the course of a few days. The results showed that even minor shifts in their sleep and wake patterns were correlated with pain sensitivity changes.

“The results clearly show that even very subtle changes in nightly sleep — reductions that many of us think little of in terms of consequences — have a clear impact on your next-day pain burden,” Krause said.

For the experiment, researchers recruited 25 healthy young adults who did not suffer from sleep or pain disorders.

Because different people have different pain thresholds, researchers began by recording each study participant’s baseline pain threshold after a full night’s sleep. They did this by gradually increasing heat levels to the skin of each participant’s lower left leg while recording their brain activity in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner.

Study participants rated their thermal pain on a scale of one to 10 and reported, on average, thermal discomfort at around 111 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 44 degrees Celsius).

Then, having established each participant’s baseline pain sensitivity after a full night’s sleep, researchers were able to compare how that threshold changed by repeating the procedure on subjects after a sleepless night. They found that the vast majority of sleep-deprived subjects reported feeling pain sooner, at around 107 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Across the group, they were feeling discomfort at lower temperatures, which shows that their own sensitivity to pain had increased after inadequate sleep,” Krause said. “The injury is the same, but the difference is how the brain assesses the pain without sufficient sleep.”

Meanwhile, brain imaging after a sleepless night showed marked increases in activity in the somatosensory cortex and deactivation in the nucleus accumbens and insular cortex, signaling malfunctions in the neural mechanisms that manage physiological responses to painful stimuli.

“The optimistic takeaway here is that sleep is a natural analgesic that can help manage and lower pain,” said Walker, author of the bestseller “Why We Sleep. ““Yet ironically, one environment where people are in the most pain is the worst place for sleep — the noisy hospital ward.”

Walker’s goal is to work with hospitals to create more sleep-friendly inpatient facilities.

“Our findings suggest that patient care would be markedly improved, and hospital beds cleared sooner, if uninterrupted sleep were embraced as an integral component of healthcare management,” he said

In addition to Walker and Krause, co-authors of the study are Aric Prather at the University of California, San Francisco; Tor Wager at the University of Colorado Boulder; and Martin Lindquist at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations

Posts by Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations

Related Topics:causes of pain chronic pain insomnia pain pain relief Science sleep sleep loss sleep study UC Berkeley

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Activism

Protesters Gather in Oakland, Other City Halls, to Halt Encampment Sweeps

The coordinated protests on Tuesday in San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo, Fresno, Los Angeles and Seattle, were hosted by Poor Magazine and Wood Street Commons, calling on cities to halt the sweeps and focus instead on building more housing.

Published

3 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

The California Poor People’s Campaign’s Victoria King erected encampments for unhoused Oaklanders. Victoria King and her committee erected these emergency tents to symbolize the needs of unhoused Oaklanders. Photos by Post Staff.

By Post Staff

Houseless rights advocates gathered in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other city halls across California and Washington state this week protesting increased sweeps that followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision over the summer.

“What we’re dealing with right now is a way to criminalize people who are dealing with poverty, who are not able to afford rent,” said rights advocate Junebug Kealoh, outside San Francisco City Hall.

“When someone is constantly swept, they are just shuffled and things get taken — it’s hard to stay on top of anything,” said Kealoh.

Local houseless advocates include Victoria King, who is a member of the coordinating committee of the California Poor People’s Campaign. She and Dr. Monica Cross co-chair the Laney Poor People’s Campaign.

The demonstrations came after a June Supreme Court ruling expanded local governments’ authority to fine and jail people for sleeping outside, even if no shelter is available. Gov. Gavin Newsom in California followed up with an order directing state agencies to crack down on encampments and urging local governments to do the same.

Fresno, Berkeley and a host of other cities implemented new rules, making it easier for local governments to clear sidewalk camps. In other cities, such as San Francisco, officials more aggressively enforced anti-camping laws already on the books.

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

IN MEMORIAM: Harvey Knight, 82

You are invited to attend the funeral services on Friday, Dec. 27, at Evergreen Baptist Church, Bishop L. Lawrence Brandon, senior pastor, 408 W. MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA at 11 a.m. Rev. Dr. Jacqueline A. Thompson, pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church will bring the eulogy.

Published

4 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Harvey Knight. Photo provided by his family.

Special to the Post

Harvey Knight, Jr., “Pops” to so many young men from Oakland, passed away at 82 on Dec. 5. Harvey was married to Brenda Knight, founder of Ladies In Red, for 51 years.

He was born on April 6, 1942, in Laurel, Mississippi.

After completing high school, Harvey moved to Oakland, California, to live with his father’s sister. He knew this would become his home. He loved the Bay Area for the sports it offered him as a basketball, baseball, and football fan.

He worked for UC Berkeley for over 43 years and part-time for the Oakland Coliseum for approximately 15 years as a security guard, where he could be close to his favorite pastime.

After establishing himself with jobs and his place to live, he knew something was missing. He found the love of his life, married her, and knew his life was complete.

Three sons were born to their union: Leonard, Harvey III, and Michael. He and his sons enjoyed the life of sports by going to the games and later supporting them in baseball at school and through Babe Ruth Baseball. His love of sports was passed on to his sons. All three played baseball while attending college.

Harvey was a soft-spoken man who provided life gems to many young boys playing baseball with his sons. Many of them would end up at the Knight family table for dinner or to listen to the man they all called ‘Pops.’

Harvey loved to travel and take in the history he experienced on his many trips with his wife, Brenda, and the organization she founded, Ladies In Red. Although Harvey did not like the color red, he enjoyed the travel provided throughout the United States. He often researched to provide his wife with information to assist her in planning the trips.

His favorite trip was to Selma, Alabama, where he learned so much about Selma’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in the name of Harvey Knight, to Foot Soldiers Park in Selma, Alabama. Go online to: footsoldierspark.org or mail to: Foot Soldiers Park INC, 1018 Water Avenue, Selma. AL 36701.

He leaves to mourn his passing, his wife Brenda; sons; Leonard, Harvey III and Michael; eight grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a host of relatives and friends.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

A Student-Run Group Is Providing Critical Support Services to Underserved Residents

During his three years volunteering at the program, Resource Director Zain Shabbir, says he noticed that many of the people who come in do not know how to navigate social services support systems, particularly online. This knowledge deficit, Shabbir says, is due to age or limited exposure to technology.

Published

4 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

UC Berkeley Law Students help a clinic attendee with legal advice at their Tuesday night services. The Clinic offers a variety of resources, including medical, to those in the community who have little access to these services. Photo by Magaly Muñoz

Part 2

By Magaly Muñoz

Resource Director Zain Shabbir is a jack-of-all-trades at the Suitcase Clinic, a student-run resource center that provides health and other services to underserved residents of Berkeley and surrounding areas.

Shabbir was once a clinic director. Now, he manages the General Clinic, floating around when case managers need assistance. And he has big plans for a new initiative.

During his three years volunteering at the program, Shabbir says he noticed that many of the people who come in do not know how to navigate social services support systems, particularly online. This knowledge deficit, Shabbir says, is due to age or limited exposure to technology.

So, he teaches clients the basics of using email, writing in word documents, and backing up files to their phones.

Shabbir shared a story about an interaction he had with a woman who came in seeking help to create a template to message property owners and realtors as she was seeking housing. Until that point, the woman was composing separate messages to each listing she was interested in, and that process was taking up too much of her time. With Shabbir’s help, she created a standard template she could modify and use for each housing inquiry or application.

He’s also hoping to use the technology to help people create resumes to find jobs.

“[The intent] is to help people find work in the city or wherever they live — or help them find housing. As most are probably aware, the two really go together because for housing, you need income verification, and for a job you need housing,” Shabbir said.

Having a warm place to go and a hot meal may seem basic buy it is critical for people who are struggling, clinic leaders say.

Mark, a frequent attendee of the Tuesday clinic, told the Oakland Post that he’s been receiving services from the program for nearly 25 years.

Mark said he was able to receive a referral to dental care through the Clinic, which he’s been using for about 20 years now. He also utilized the chiropractor, a service that is no longer offered, for pain and aches he acquired over the years.

Many program participants say they visit the clinic now for services provided by Berkeley medical students, who rely on osteopathic care rather than traditional methods. Osteopathic medicine is a medical philosophy and practice that focuses on the whole person, rather than just symptoms.

Executive director Nilo Golchini said that many clinic patients tend to appreciate and trust this type of medicine over mainstream practices because of sub-standard care they have received in the past because they are homeless or poor.

Acupuncture is also an extremely popular station at the Clinic as well, with participants saying it “soothes and calms” them.

Attendees of the clinic are generally in happy spirits throughout the hours they’re able to interact with fellow residents. Some even participate in arts and crafts, moving from table to show their friends their new creations.

“It’s a program that’s going strong,” said Golchini. “There’s a space for everyone” who wants to volunteer or receive services, and they’ll keep going as long as the community needs it.

The Suitcase General Clinic is open every Tuesday from 6:30 to 9:30pm. Women’s and Youth Clinics are held every Monday from 6 to 9pm.