Lack of Sleep Early On Leads to Complications Later in Life

  Research from the University of Groningen, in The Netherlands, has found that young adults between 19 and 22 years old that don’t sleep well may have more chronic pain later in life. The researchers followed 1,750 people for three years.

About 50 percent of the participants that had sleep problems at the beginning of the study still had them at the end of the study. Roughly 38 percent of those reported chronic pain after three years. This compares to 14 percent of those that didn’t have sleep problems at the start of the research, but reported chronic pain at its conclusion.

Overall, the study found that sleep problems were associated with more musculoskeletal pains, headaches and abdominal pain. The relationship occurred in both men and women, but was stronger among women.