How do rotator cuff tears affect sleep?

As anyone who has ever had shoulder pain will tell you, sleeping can be very difficult.  I hear this concern daily in my shoulder clinic and often times this is the biggest complaint after a shoulder injury or shoulder surgery.  A recent study looked into the incidence of sleep disturbance with rotator cuff disease.  They found that 91% of patients with rotator cuff tendinitis or a rotator cuff tear have some level of sleep disturbance.  Interestingly, the status of the rotator cuff (whether or not there was a tear or only tendinitis) did not correlate with increasing symptoms of shoulder pain or with worse sleep quality.  Worse sleep quality was also noted in patients with increased pain, depression, low back pain, diabetes, women patients, and higher body mass index.  

This is a good study and echoes what I see daily in my shoulder clinic.  Sleep disturbance is ubiquitous with shoulder injury.  Some tips that I give my patients to improve sleep are:

• Try sleeping in a recliner for the first few days after injury or surgery.

• Use multiple pillows on either side of you when sleeping to prevent yourself from rolling over onto your injured shoulder.

• Try a session of pain reduction techniques shortly before attempting to sleep to decrease your perception of pain.