According to a Runner’s World news report, a new study reveals that 30-minute naps for sleep deprived individuals may lead to less sensitivity to pain.
Experts have known for a while that—among other negative effects on your running and health—slacking on sleep decreases your pain tolerance, says W. Christopher Winter, M.D., medical director of Charlottesville Neurology & Sleep Medicine (who wasn’t involved with the study). That means everything from a hard interval workout to an injury hurts worse.
In the new study, French researchers confirmed this by restricting 11 healthy men to just two hours of sleep, then testing how painful heat, cold, or pressure felt in three spots: upper back, lower back, and thigh. After the nearly sleepless night, participants reported that heat on their lower back and pressure on their upper back hurt more than it did when they were well rested.
