Use of a California poppy agent to improve restorative sleep

Master Herbalist is a health product consultant and performs research on alternative therapies. He can be contacted at [email protected]. The severity of chronic pain can be mild to severe and it can be episodic or continuous. In some cases the pain partially affects the patient's well-being, level of function, and quality of life and in others it is completely incapacitating. The goal of pain management is to rapidly provide relief and improve the quality of life, including the ability to participate in day-today activities. Analgesics and other medications are commonly used in the treatment of chronic pain but many of these medications effect sleep and/or sleep quality. Clinical trials have shown decreases in total sleep time, decreases in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and decreases or increases in Stage 1, 2, 3 or 4 1-6. Sleep has been shown to be negatively affected by NSAIDs, opioids and other pain medications. But what about the interrelation of pain with sleep? It is a bidirectional relationship where poor sleep enhances pain and enhanced pain further disturbs sleep. According to the medical literature, 50% to 89% of chronic pain patients complain of poor sleep and/or feeling unrefreshed upon awakening 7. Sleep has an essential function especially for recovery in chronic pain conditions. Lower sleep efficiencies and fragmented sleep were observed in a polysomnographic study of patients with diabetic and postherpetic neuropathy 8. In patients with fibromyalgia, the amount of slow sleep, REM sleep, and total sleep time were reduced relative to age-matched controls 8. A prospective study in this patient population demonstrated that nights with poor sleep tended to be followed by days with greater pain and days with greater pain lead to nights with greater sleep Original Article