Is lack of sleep making your low back pain worse ?
Okinawa sports and spinal research update
Sleeping less than 6 hours a day is strongly correlated with chronic lower back
Very interesting research just in from Korea
A recent study in the Frontiers in public health shows a strong correlation with those that get less sleep and those that experience chronic lower back. This might be a 2 way street, poor sleep probably makes lower back pain worse and if you have chronic lower back its probably harder to get a good nights sleep !
The large study that looked at over 6025 participants found that the correlation was much stronger for those getting less than 6.55 hours of sleep so that seems to be about the danger zone. Increasing your sleep by just one hour reduced the risk of your sleep being correlated with lower back pain by 13% so even just getting a few hours passed 6.5 hours might make all the difference.
Another study published in the BMC journal of public health showed something even more surprising in that too much sleep is also correlated with chronic pain so there might actually be a sweet spot of about 6 to 8 hours where body is getting the added protection of good sleep.
Of course correlation does not equal causation and perhaps further research may explain this finding with other better explanations but for now the take home message should be that if you are suffering from chronic pain you should be giving a good sleep more priority than most people just to give yourself the best chance.
References
- Dexin , Zhang Yihui , Liu Xingkai , Yang Xin , Liang Xichao , Hu Xu , Yuan Hua , Zhao Chenguang Sleeping <6.55 h per day was associated with a higher risk of low back pain in adults aged over 50 years: a Korean nationwide cross-sectional studyFrontiers in Public Health, Volume 12, 2024
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1429495
DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2024.1429495
2. Zhong, M., Wang, Z. The association between sleep disorder, sleep duration and chronic back pain: results from National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, 2009–2010. BMC Public Health 24, 2809 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-20263-9
