Chronic Pain → Sleep Problems → Serotonin deficiency → Depression
It can be common with pain and chronic pain to experience sleeping problems. Pain can make it difficult to get to sleep, or it can disturb you while you are sleeping, and keep waking you up, making it very difficult to sleep soundly. Imbalances from sleep disturbances causes a chain reaction of other problems like fatigue, brain fog, muscular aches and pains, biochemical imbalances and depression.
In normal sleep we go through a series of sleep stages and brain wave patterns, from light sleep (stage 1), through to progressively deeper sleep (stages 2, 3, 4, which is beta, gamma, delta - the deepest stage of sleep). Studies have found that people with sleep disturbances due to pain, have disruptions to the delta stage of sleep. Which means they tend to wake up feeling just as tired as they did when they went to bed, or even more tired. This leads to difficulty in concentrating, memory problems, difficulty in decision making, forgetfulness, and a feeling of brain fog. The studies also found that when sleep continues to be disturbed over a period of time, people were prone to becoming deficient in serotonin, becoming withdrawn, stressed, and had increased muscular and joint tenderness and stiffness.
Serotonin is a brain chemical responsible for regulating many of the functions in your body that contribute to your overall health and wellbeing, it helps you to regulate sleep patterns, memory, appetite, and body temperature. When any one of these things become irregular, due to a lack of serotonin, it can cause you even more stress and perpetuate the cycle. A deficiency of serotonin can also lower your pain threshold and cause depression. Consistent healthy sleeping patterns are the key to maintaining healthy serotonin signalling in our brains and our bodies.
It is possible to replenish serotonin in your body in the following ways:
✦ Healthy diet, fun activities, exercise, meditation
✦ Serotonin is synthesised from the amino acid tryptophan, which is found in many foods including eggs, cheese, tofu, salmon, turkey, bananas, nuts and seeds.
✦ Vitamins and supplements including vitamin B6, B3, B9, vitamin C and D, Magnesium, Zinc, St. Johns Wort, 5HTP, Omega-3s DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid), Turmeric and Probiotics.
✦ Medications for chemical imbalances and depression, you will need to discuss the options with your doctor to see if this is appropriate for you.
