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Relationships Between Sleep Quality and Pain-Related Factors for People with Chronic Low Back Pain: Tests of Reciprocal and Time of Day Effects

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Poor sleep quality among people with chronic low back pain appears to be related to worse pain, affect, poor physical function, and pain catastrophizing. The causal direction between poor sleep and pain remains an open question, however, as does whether sleep quality exerts effects on low back pain differently across the course of the day.

Purpose

This daily diary study examined lagged temporal associations between prior night sleep quality and subsequent day pain, affect, physical function and pain catastrophizing, the reverse lagged temporal associations between prior day pain-related factors and subsequent night sleep quality, and whether the time of day during which an assessment was made moderated these temporal associations.

Methods

Chronic low back pain patients (n = 105) completed structured electronic diary assessments five times per day for 14 days. Items included patient ratings of their pain, affect, physical function, and pain catastrophizing.

Results

Collapsed across all observations, poorer sleep quality was significantly related to higher pain ratings, higher negative affect, lower positive affect, poorer physical function, and higher pain catastrophizing. Lagged analyses averaged across the day revealed that poorer prior night sleep quality significantly predicted greater next day patient ratings of pain, and poorer physical function and higher pain catastrophizing. Prior poorer night sleep quality significantly predicted greater reports of pain, and poorer physical function, and higher pain catastrophizing, especially during the early part of the day. Sleep quality × time of day interactions showed that poor sleepers reported high pain, and negative mood and low function uniformly across the day, whereas good sleepers reported relatively good mornings, but showed pain, affect and function levels comparable to poor sleepers by the end of the day. Analyses of the reverse causal pathway were mostly nonsignificant.

Conclusions

Sleep quality appears related not only to pain intensity but also to a wide range of patient mood and function factors. A good night’s sleep also appears to offer only temporary respite, suggesting that comprehensive interventions for chronic low back pain not only should include attention to sleep problems but also focus on problems with pain appraisals and coping.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rush University Medical Center, 1725 W. Harrison, Chicago, IL, 606012, USA

    James I. Gerhart PhD, John W. Burns PhD, Helen J. Burgess PhD, Erik Schuster MA & Asokumar Buvanendran MD

  2. University of La Verne, La Verne, CA, USA

    Kristina M. Post PhD

  3. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    David A. Smith PhD

  4. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Laura S. Porter PhD, Anne Marie Fras MD & Francis J. Keefe PhD

Authors
  1. James I. Gerhart PhD
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  2. John W. Burns PhD
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  6. Helen J. Burgess PhD
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  10. Francis J. Keefe PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James I. Gerhart PhD.

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Authors’ Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards

Authors James I. Gerhart, John W. Burns, Kristina M. Post, David A. Smith, Laura S. Porter, Helen J. Burgess, Erik Schuster, Asokumar Buvanendran, Anne Marie Fras, Francis J. Keefe declare that they have no conflict of interest. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards at Rush University Medical Center, Duke University Medical Center, and University of Notre Dame. All participants provided informed consent as part of this study, and the study was conducted according to APA ethical standards. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (no. 1R01NR010777).

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Gerhart, J.I., Burns, J.W., Post, K.M. et al. Relationships Between Sleep Quality and Pain-Related Factors for People with Chronic Low Back Pain: Tests of Reciprocal and Time of Day Effects. ann. behav. med. 51, 365–375 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-016-9860-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-016-9860-2

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