Sleep and quality of life in chronic pain

Assessment of quality of life (QOL) is important in evaluating the well-being of patients suffering from chronically painful conditions. In addition to identifying the degree of psychosocial distress experienced by these patients, QOL assessments allow quantification of how pain specifically impacts daily functioning, and it serves as a treatment outcome in clinical research. The effect of pain on QOL depends on several characteristics of pain, such as the extent to which pain affects the anatomy, the duration of pain, the intensity of pain, the personal meaning of pain, and to some extent how pain may be a marker of, and directly impacts, an underlying disease state. However, pain is not a unique predictor of poor QOL. Sleep quality has been shown to be an important mediating factor in pain-related disability by influencing pain intensity and emotional distress. Chronic pain and sleep disturbances each independently and synergistically have profound detrimental effects on QOL, and psychosocial mediators have been identified.