The Rheumatologist
COVID-19 NewsACR Convergence
  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed
  • Home
  • Conditions
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • SLE (Lupus)
    • Crystal Arthritis
      • Gout Resource Center
    • Spondyloarthritis
    • Osteoarthritis
    • Soft Tissue Pain
    • Scleroderma
    • Vasculitis
    • Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes
    • Guidelines
  • Resource Centers
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis Resource Center
    • Gout Resource Center
    • Psoriatic Arthritis Resource Center
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
  • Drug Updates
    • Biologics & Biosimilars
    • DMARDs & Immunosuppressives
    • Topical Drugs
    • Analgesics
    • Safety
    • Pharma Co. News
  • Professional Topics
    • Ethics
    • Legal
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Career Development
      • Certification
      • Education & Training
    • Awards
    • Profiles
    • President’s Perspective
    • Rheuminations
    • Interprofessional Perspective
  • Practice Management
    • Billing/Coding
    • Quality Assurance/Improvement
    • Workforce
    • Facility
    • Patient Perspective
    • Electronic Health Records
    • Apps
    • Information Technology
    • From the College
    • Multimedia
      • Audio
      • Video
  • Resources
    • Issue Archives
    • ACR Convergence
      • Gout Resource Center
      • Axial Spondyloarthritis Resource Center
      • Psoriatic Arthritis
      • Abstracts
      • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence Home
    • American College of Rheumatology
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Research Reviews
    • ACR Journals
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
    • Rheumatology Image Library
    • Treatment Guidelines
    • Rheumatology Research Foundation
    • Events
  • About Us
    • Mission/Vision
    • Meet the Authors
    • Meet the Editors
    • Contribute to The Rheumatologist
    • Subscription
    • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Search
You are here: Home / Articles / Knee Osteoarthritis Pain Worse with Insomnia

Knee Osteoarthritis Pain Worse with Insomnia

June 18, 2015 • By Lisa Rapaport

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version / Save PDF

(Reuters Health)—People suffering from osteoarthritis, the most common type of joint inflammation, are more likely to have knee pain when they also have difficulty getting enough sleep, a study suggests.

You Might Also Like
  • Sleep Therapy May Help Ease Knee Pain
  • Inflammation May Sensitize Patients with Osteoarthritis to Pain
  • Does Insomnia in Patients with Knee OA Affect Pain?

Researchers found that people with knee osteoarthritis and insomnia were also more likely to suffer from a nervous system disorder called “central sensitization” that makes them more sensitive to pain and lowers their threshold for tolerating discomfort.

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

“Knee osteoarthritis patients with insomnia have more pain and worse physical function than knee osteoarthritis patients without insomnia,” lead study author Claudia Campbell, a psychiatry researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said by email.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease that erodes cartilage, the slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones in a joint, causing pain, swelling, loss of motion and bone spurs. It is associated with aging. It typically strikes the most used joints, including the knees, hips, fingers and lower spine.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Globally, about one in 10 men and one in five women over age 60 have osteoarthritis, one of the leading causes of disability in developed nations, according to the World Health Organization.

About a third of adults have insomnia, or difficulty falling or staying asleep, at least briefly. Around one in 10 people have chronic insomnia that’s more severe, striking at least three times a week for three months or more, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Campbell and colleagues compared pain in four groups: 118 patients with insomnia and knee osteoarthritis, 31 people with the joint disorder but normal sleep patterns, 30 healthy people with insomnia, and 29 healthy individuals with no trouble sleeping.

ad goes here:advert-3
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

People with insomnia took more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, or they had at least two awakenings a night of more than 15 minutes or at least one awakening for more than 30 minutes – and they had these problems on at least three nights a week for a month or more.

Healthy patients in the study had no history of chronic pain over the past three years and no major medical or psychiatric illnesses.

Study participants kept sleep diaries, did one-night sleep studies in a laboratory to verify the quality of rest they got, and took pain threshold tests using heat and cold.

The knee osteoarthritis patients were significantly older than their healthy peers, reported higher levels of pain and depression, and were more likely to be overweight.

Among participants with insomnia, those who also had knee osteoarthritis reported more sleep interruptions and had less “sleep efficiency,” the authors report in the journal Arthritis Care and Research.

Sleep efficiency is determined by how much time you spend asleep after you go to bed and turn the lights off.

Researchers also measured signs of what’s known as central sensitization, a nervous system condition linked to long-term exposure to chronic pain that makes people have a lower pain threshold.

Patients with knee osteoarthritis and insomnia were most sensitive to pain, based on assessments of central sensitization, the study found.

While sleep patterns have long been linked to pain perception, the study sheds new light on how insomnia transforms pain perception through central sensitization in people with knee osteoarthritis, said Dr. Gillian Hawker, a researcher in musculoskeletal diseases at the University of Toronto who wasn’t involved in the study.

But the study can’t prove that insomnia causes pain, because it’s hard to say which problem developed first, Hawker said by email.

“People with a lot of joint pain have difficulty sleeping, which can result in greater fatigue and depressed mood and pain severity,” Hawker said. “Physical activity, which is the primary therapy for knee osteoarthritis, helps sleep, pain, mood and functioning.”

Pages: 1 2 | Multi-Page

Filed Under: Conditions, Osteoarthritis Tagged With: Arthritis Care & Research, insomnia, knee osteoarthritis, Pain, patient care

You Might Also Like:
  • Sleep Therapy May Help Ease Knee Pain
  • Inflammation May Sensitize Patients with Osteoarthritis to Pain
  • Does Insomnia in Patients with Knee OA Affect Pain?
  • Pain Linked to Inflammatory Lesions in Knee Osteoarthritis

American College of Rheumatology

Visit the official website for the American College of Rheumatology.

Visit the ACR »

Meeting Abstracts

Browse and search abstracts from the ACR Convergence and ACR/ARP Annual Meetings going back to 2012.

Visit the Abstracts site »

Simple Tasks

Learn more about the ACR’s public awareness campaign and how you can get involved. Help increase visibility of rheumatic diseases and decrease the number of people left untreated.

Visit the Simple Tasks site »

The Rheumatologist newsmagazine reports on issues and trends in the management and treatment of rheumatic diseases. The Rheumatologist reaches 11,500 rheumatologists, internists, orthopedic surgeons, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who practice, research, or teach in the field of rheumatology.

About Us / Contact Us / Advertise / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use / Cookie Preferences

  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed

Copyright © 2006–2023 American College of Rheumatology. All rights reserved.

ISSN 1931-3268 (print)
ISSN 1931-3209 (online)