Living well | exercise, nutrition and sleep

There is good evidence that keeping active helps with managing persistent pain, especially if done in combination with activity management and pacing.

Pain and sleep can affect each other thus improving sleep is another important part of pain management for many.

Persistent pain can alter how and what you eat. Some people find they lose their appetite, and others want to comfort eat meaning that you need to think about and prioritise your diet as part of living well with pain.

Exercise

We all know that keeping active is good for our health – it helps our muscles, lungs and heart stay strong. It can also help to improve our mood. There is also good evidence that keeping active helps with managing persistent pain, especially if done in combination with activity management and pacing.

When you have persistent pain, it can be challenging to start or continue keeping active and finding movement that you enjoy is key. Some people also find keeping active in a group more beneficial.

Fife Health Sport and Leisure Trust

We are undefeatable exercise programme – How to get active whilst living with a health condition including helpful videos.

Nutrition 

What we eat and drink can impact our general health and our health. Trying to eat a good variety of foods, particularly fresh vegetables and fruit is important. 

Persistent pain can alter how and what you eat. Some people find they lose their appetite, and others want to comfort eat. Pain can also make food preparation more challenging. Trying to maintain a balanced diet is important. Drinking enough fluid is also important for our health.

The following guide has some useful information on healthy eating.

Remember that small changes add up and are better than no change.

The Eatwell Guide | NHS

Sleep

Persistent pain can affect the quality of our sleep, and we know that poor sleep can lead to increased pain the next day. It is thought that this is because poor sleep contributes to sensitisation of the nervous system. Improving sleep is therefore an important part of pain management for many people. Sleep problems are common, and other causes for these can include: stress, anxiety, depression, some medications, as well as unhelpful sleep habits.

When sleep has been a struggle, we can get to a point where we become worried about the prospect of getting a good night’s sleep, which can lead to stress and tension in the lead up to bedtime. This is likely to make it more difficult to get over to sleep. You might also notice that you spend much of the night clock-watching, or battling with racing thoughts. It can be helpful to try to establish a relaxing bedtime routine, which you carry out in the same way each night. This helps to let our body know that it is almost time to sleep.

You can access more sleep tips here: 

My Live Well With Pain leaflet

Sleep well course | Access Therapies Fife

The Sleepio app is a six-week clinically proven programme used to treat insomnia, available free on the NHS.

Try the Sleepio app

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