Practice Good Sleep Hygiene
Learning how to practice good sleep hygiene may help you find a restorative sleep once again. What is sleep hygiene?
Sleep hygiene is defined by Oxford as, “habits and practices that are conducive to sleeping well on a regular basis.” Sleep is the foundation that allows us to function in our daily lives. If we don’t sleep well, we can’t think as well and any pain or mood symptoms can worsen.
A first step in rehabilitation is often to help restore sleep. Your family doctor may have medical suggestions (medications, sleep study, sleep specialist or other therapies) and occupational therapists often provide tips to help you develop healthy sleep habits.
Here is a handout on sleep hygiene to get you on your way to finding that refreshed morning feeling.
Sleep Hygiene PDF
Tips for Pacing.PDF
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the awareness that arises when we pay attention, in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgement (Kabat-Zinn, 2011). We learn to step out of automatic pilot, which in turn affects how we make decisions and react to situations in our lives.
Key Learnings:
We spend most of our time ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. Through mindfulness, we can learn to bring moment to moment awareness to everyday experiences that we ordinarily do not notice. By learning to pay attention in this way, we learn to recognize thoughts as thoughts, feelings as feelings, and body sensations as body sensations. A mindfulness practice involves learning formal practices (e.g., seated mindfulness meditation) and informal practices, where we can bring mindful awareness to our everyday experiences (e.g., brushing our teeth, eating a meal).
A New Way of Relating to Pain:
There are ways that we can learn to skillfully deal with pain. With mindful awareness, we can learn to notice the changing physical sensations of what we call “pain”, and our reactions or aversion to pain including contracting, pushing away, discomfort and repulsion. We can learn to let go of the resistance which leads to mental suffering around pain, and instead, to notice thoughts as thoughts, emotions as emotions, and to directly experience the physical sensations in a clear, open way.
How to get started?
Daily Opportunities for Mindfulness:
- Mindful breathing
- Mindful eating
- Mindful walking
Adapting:
- Strive to be mindful daily
- Develop mindful moments (e.g. brushing teeth)
- Be aware of bodily experience when feeling rushed, overwhelmed or fatigued
- Notice your bodily experience when you are relaxed, happy, comfortable or at ease
- Slow down. Avoid rushing
Mindfulness Tool: STOP
- Stop
- Take a breath
- Observe
- Proceed
Recorded Meditations
Free Meditation Apps
Mindfulness courses (in Los Angeles area)
For the first time since 1979, International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) introduced a revised definition of pain, the result of a two-year process that the association hopes will lead to improved ways of assessing and managing pain.
The definition is: “An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage,” and is expanded upon by the addition of six key Notes and the etymology of the word pain for further valuable context.
- Pain is always a personal experience that is influenced to varying degrees by biological, psychological, and social factors.
- Pain and nociception are different phenomena. Pain cannot be inferred solely from activity in sensory neurons.
- Through their life experiences, individuals learn the concept of pain.
- A person’s report of an experience as pain should be respected.
- Although pain usually serves an adaptive role, it may have adverse effects on function and social and psychological well-being.
- Verbal description is only one of several behaviors to express pain; inability to communicate does not negate the possibility that a human or a nonhuman animal experiences pain.
A multi-national, multidisciplinary Task Force developed the revised definition with input from all potential stakeholders, including persons in pain and their caregivers.
The revised definition was introduced in this article in the journal PAIN and a via a press release. An infographic also illustrates the changes.
IASP Announces Revised Definition of Pain
Standards of care to manage chronic pain includes the development of self management skills, but for many people, professional guidance is helpful to know what questions to ask, where to go for support and little things you can do to reduce your pain intensity and improve daily functioning.
Much of the educational information we provide and reinforce to our clients can be found on the Fraser Health website, Manage Pain . I highly recommend reviewing the relevant subheadings which include: medication usage, support groups, exercise, depression, sleep and even financial resources. There are links to helpful videos and local resources. I hope you find this website useful in your journey to develop your own self-management toolkit to manage your pain.