Key messages

Sleep can affect all areas of your life including how well you concentrate, perform at school or work, take part in physical activities, your mood, and even your ability to cope with pain and other difficulties in life.
Chronic pain and sleeping problems can often create a vicious circle, where being in pain makes it harder to fall and stay asleep, and a lack of sleep increases the experience of pain.
Improving your sleeping habits is like training for a marathon – it takes work and discipline, but it does pay off.
Fatigue is a feeling of physical or emotional exhaustion. It goes beyond just feeling sleepy. It usually happens when you over-exert or “push” yourself too hard.
You can manage fatigue by pacing yourself throughout the day, using relaxation and distraction and taking medications, if recommended by your healthcare team.