Is it possible to sleep through immense pain?

If lady has ever had an ovarian cyst burst, they know what excruciating pain is.

I suspect one burst in my sleep last night. It's a chronic problem I've had since childhood. This morning I have all the pain that comes with a burst cyst, but I didn't have those few hours of agony that prelude it.

Which makes me wonder if one can sleep through that much pain without waking up?

I've never had an ovarian cyst.

But last Fall, I did develop appendicitis. The pain started about 10AM, and was generalized in my abdomen. About 2PM, I left work due to the pain, and took a nap on the couch. I slept for about 2 hours and woke up.

Now, I'm not sure whether or not the pain woke me up, or I woke up because my "nap" was over. It's a tough call. I did some 'net searches and decided I had appendicitis.

Went to the hospital and had emergency surgery.

In the end, I think the answer is "yes." It is possible, though unlikely, to sleep through extreme pain. Especially for people who have no problem going into a deep sleep. I don't. My SO, OTOH, will wake if a pin drops at the other end of the house.

Now, if the pain comes from a bucket of ice water being thrown in your face while you're sleeping...

The perception of pain can vary and you can probably sleep through some types of pain. My guess is that if you always have intense pain when the cyst ruptures, the cyst may not have ruptured until you began feeling the pain.

Hi Lauren,
do you have endometriosis?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endometriosis

A friend of mine has that. As to sleep thru pain: You have different cycles of pain awareness and sometimes it is possible to feel pain differently at different times of day or at different times of relaxations.
So maybe you were relaxed enough to only feel the pain when you were fully conscious? I think its possible. Or as whitechocolate suggests, the preparation took place in relaxation and the burst occurred only after you felt the pain. The womb is an interesting organ. Sometimes you can feel relaxed and no pain at other times you feel pain before the happenings. I sometimes have menstrual pain and at other times i don`t feel anything. It depends on my psyche and on the level of stress i have at the time.

Ouch!

It is certainly possible to sleep through pain, at least it was after surgery - 24 hours later so drugs were out of the system by then. Probably depends on the individual. My guess would be that people who in general have a high pain threshold will be far more likely to do so.

Nina:

My doctors have never specifically diagnosed me with that. I do however wish I were infertile LOL

On the exams they've only been able to see relatively small cysts on the ovaries. They've never been big enough to warrant any serious concern and I go through a bout of agony every six months or so. It's not so bad as it lasts only a few days and is no danger to my overall health.

I will say that generally it's hard to miss the moment a burst happens. The pain is pretty sudden and quite crippling, then eases after a few hours and leaves a lingering dull ache for a little while.

DG:

Well my experience in BDSM is that I have a high pain tolerance - sometimes too high for my own good. I suppose if I were in a deep sleep cycle I could sleep through it.

The idea of sleeping through that kind of pain just fascinates me. Actually sleep in general fascinates.

So now to completely wander off topic, I think one of the coolest Apps on my iphone yet is Sleep Cycle:

It's an alarm clock that creates a 30 min wake-up phase that ends at the time you set your alarm clock. So if you set it for 9, it'll wake you up sometime between 8:30 and 9.

It uses the accelerometer inside the phone to sense your movement during sleep, to judge when you're in a light phase and when your in a deep sleep. In fact it monitors your sleep cycles through the entire night - it's actually quite interesting to see the statistics gathered in the morning. So once you've entered into the half hour before your alarm, it waits until you're in a light phase of sleep and goes off. Personally I've found it a God send as waking up during a deep sleep leaves me like a zombie for the next two hours.

I particularly like the intelligent snooze. Intelligent snooze lets you snooze until the time you set your alarm clock, so if it wakes you up 15min early during your light sleep, you can doze for the next 15min. It automatically sets the duration of each soft alarm so you don't go back into a deep sleep. I LOVE it.

Which makes me wonder if one can sleep through that much pain without waking up? Originally Posted by Lauren Summerhill

Lauren, if you had to pick three things that modern medicine should know about it and doesn't, I would put pain, obesity, and sleep at the top of the list.

One biologist made the point that sleep had to be so advantageous to a species because it left them so vulnerable while asleep. IOW, the advantages of sleep trump the vulnerability of sleeping in the wild.

Sleep and pain are related though. Anyone who is deprived of sleep for 48 hours will develop the terrible tender points commonly seen with fibromyalgia.

There seems to be production of important hormones that are made during sleep that can't be made at any other time. I know some of the hormones that are made in the pituitary correlate with certain phases of sleep.

But what you are talking about is natural pain killers, the endorphins. Could they be so high in sleep that you literally sleep right through an event that is quite painful? I don't know for sure, but my guess is that they probably could be. Right now, we only know about three classes of endorphins, but I suspect there are more.

Your body actually makes its own form of marijuana called Anandamide, and there is cross reactivity between it and endorphins.

The weirdest of the three classes of endorphins IMO is dynorphin. It is like 100X stronger than morphine but unlike endorphin which is effective against neuropathic pain, it makes neuropathic pain worse.

When you inject dynorphin into a rat's spinal cord, they suffer from allodynia, pain from nonpainful stimuli like moderately hot water or a bright light. However, they don't suffer or suffer much less from somatic pain (like an ovarian cyst bursting or a leg being broken).

But I don't know the correlation between sleep and endophins though. Maybe someone else does.

Lauren, that phone sleep cycle app sounds interesting. Do you have sleep with the phone on you?
As far as the pain, what do the doctors say is the cause of your pain since they have not made the diagnosis?

Nina:

My doctors have never specifically diagnosed me with that. I do however wish I were infertile LOL

On the exams they've only been able to see relatively small cysts on the ovaries. They've never been big enough to warrant any serious concern and I go through a bout of agony every six months or so. It's not so bad as it lasts only a few days and is no danger to my overall health.

I will say that generally it's hard to miss the moment a burst happens. The pain is pretty sudden and quite crippling, then eases after a few hours and leaves a lingering dull ache for a little while.
Originally Posted by Lauren Summerhill

Hi Lauren,
Yes i know its hard to miss the point a burst happens. A friend of mine has endometriosis and she goes thru the exact same things except pretty regularly. Monthly so to speak. She is in so much pain she can`t go to work even. She had cycsts removed or bursted, and she uses a hormon pill (similar to contraceptive) to control it. She still has the bursts though....but the pain is less.

I am so sorry you have to go thru this. It seems unlike the menstrual period it is not predictable as to when it will happen and you can`t avoid the pain completely... I hope it gets better and not worse over the years. Are you currently taking some kind of hormonal birth control? The reason i am asking is - because maybe you have endometriosis and due to the fact that you are on the pill - the stages are not so often or so severe. What did your doctors say about it? Hope all is better now?

Lauren, that phone sleep cycle app sounds interesting. Do you have sleep with the phone on you?
As far as the pain, what do the doctors say is the cause of your pain since they have not made the diagnosis? Originally Posted by whitechocolate

You place the phone on your bed, it doesn't have to be immediately near you.

Oh for this recent bout I haven't bothered going to a doctor. In previous cases an ultrasound showed the cysts. It's just part of being a woman, some individuals are prone to them, and there's not much that can be done to prevent it.

I am so sorry you have to go thru this. It seems unlike the menstrual period it is not predictable as to when it will happen and you can`t avoid the pain completely... I hope it gets better and not worse over the years. Are you currently taking some kind of hormonal birth control? The reason i am asking is - because maybe you have endometriosis and due to the fact that you are on the pill - the stages are not so often or so severe. What did your doctors say about it? Hope all is better now? Originally Posted by ninasastri

It has decreased in frequency. I don't care much for using any hormonal medications. To be honest I like having a 40 day cycle, and I don't mind suffering through the pain a couple of times a year. I prefer not to fudge with my body's chemicals.

It has decreased in frequency. I don't care much for using any hormonal medications. To be honest I like having a 40 day cycle, and I don't mind suffering through the pain a couple of times a year. I prefer not to fudge with my body's chemicals. Originally Posted by Lauren Summerhill

That is good news. I also don`t take the pill, i am on the same book here. Especially when you get older its not so good. In the case of my GF she has to because her life would be unbearable without the hormons. But she would prefer not taking them either. I think you have a bit of an endometriosis as well, and so its good news it decreases rather than it increases.

If you live with chronic pain you begin to develop some tolerance to pain. Sleeping through pain all depends on your tolerance level and what is actually happening in your body at the time pain is occurring. Pain is your bodies warning system however, so it is not always good to ignore pain. I hope you get to feeling better.

Everyone feels pain differently. If you have high tolerance you’ll feel it less. If you are asleep at the time it’s likely not to wake you; if it’s within that tolerance level. I had a chronic shoulder separation problem; occasionally I’d wake up with a separated shoulder. If it separated when I was awake it was all I could do not to scream




All in all it’s a good thing right? You missed the most painful part of the process.

I will let ya'll know tomorrow.

My gall stones are acting up like never before.

It is gall stones vs. Ambien.

No matter who wins tonite , they will be gone before the weekend is over!