Nighttime Back Pain
Nighttime back pain is a special type of lower back pain that could indicate a serious problem with your spine. If you've never had pain in your lower back, chances are you will.
In the U.S., between 60% and 80% of the population experiences some form of low back pain during their life. It's the second most common reason people see their doctor. But as debilitating as back pain can be, most instances of it are manageable, and people often see improvement within a matter of weeks.
A key element in that improvement is getting adequate rest. But there are a number of people with nighttime back pain who can't get the rest they need because they're unable to get relief for their pain when they try to sleep.
What Is Nighttime Back Pain?
The majority of people with back pain are able to adjust how they sleep to get relief from the pain they experience during the day. But with nighttime back pain -- also called nocturnal back pain -- the hurting doesn't stop when a person lies down, no matter what adjustments he or she makes. For some, the pain actually gets worse. And for others, the pain doesn't even start until they lie down.
A person can actually go through a day virtually pain free. But then at night that same person might find it nearly impossible to get a full night's sleep. In one study -- published in the journal Spine in 2005 -- 44% of people seen at a back pain clinic in the U.K. complained of pain at night. And 42% of those people said the pain was present every night.
Some of the people in the study with nocturnal pain reported being awakened as often as six times a night, with the average being 2.5 times a night. The average length of continuous sleep for people with nocturnal pain was less than five hours.
What Causes Nocturnal Pain?
Just as with normal back pain, the cause of nighttime back pain isn't always clear. Among other things, back pain can be caused by any of the following:
- Problems with the way the spine moves or other mechanical problems, the most common of which is disc degeneration. Discs are tissue between the vertebrae that function as a type of shock absorber; the discs can break down with age.
- Injuries such as sprains or fractures or more severe injuries such as a fall or an auto accident.
- Diseases and conditions, such as scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine, or spinal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the spinal column. Kidney stones, pregnancy, endometriosis, and various forms of arthritis can all lead to back pain.
A person who has one of these problems may or may not have back pain and may or may not have nocturnal back pain. A large number of the participants with nighttime pain in the back pain clinic study had disc degeneration.
Sometimes the cause of back pain might not be determined.
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