[Sleep disorder and pain: the good hypnotic]

Abstract

Chronic pain and sleep disorder can put the patient in a vicious circle (bidirectional relation between those two morbid entities). Clinical management must be global. The physiopathology includes chronic sleep deficit, mainly in deep sleep (the "restoring" sleep) generated principally by the prefrontal regions. These areas are also implicated in the modulation of pain. To break this "loops", we advocate an approach based on three main components: hygiene principles, cognitive and behavioral therapy, medications with analgesic and hypnotic proprieties.