Sleep is an essential function for survival, like eating or drinking. Therefore, when your body is not getting enough quality sleep, your body can react. It does this by creating an inflammatory response which can make you feel sick, tired and irritable.

Critically, pain is also one of the body’s responses to poor sleep. Think of how sore you have felt in the past when you have a cold or flu, even though you did not hurt yourself. Muscles, bones and nerves can feel more sensitive, sore and painful at times like this, even though they are not damaged.

When someone has pain, a good night’s sleep can be hard to get. However, it works both ways as sleep problems can lead to back pain in the future. In the same way that poor sleep can make us more stressed, give us a headache, make us tired or feel down, it can also cause or prolong back pain.

So, improving sleeping routine and habits can be very helpful in reducing pain.