A new study has found that disturbed sleep increases the body’s sensitivity to pain, and that women react more strongly than men. The study is published in the ‘European Journal of Pain’.

According to the researchers from Aalborg University in Denmark, this opens up a new and often overlooked approach to both the understanding and treatment of chronic pain. “For many years, we’ve relied on stronger and more targeted medicine. “But perhaps the solution is far simpler.

It seems that sleep plays a greater role in pain than we previously understood, especially in women,” said Kristian Kjær-Staal Petersen, associate professor and pain researcher at Aalborg University. The study included 59 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 45. For three nights, the participants were woken up three times each night and asked to complete small tasks before they could go back to sleep.