Shingles Pain At Night

Shingles a viral infection of the nerve roots affects 1 million people in the u s each year.

Shingles pain at night. Shingles is a common affliction that happens to middle age or older people who had chickenpox as children. It s an extra twist of cruelty where sleep might help a shingles victim recover better the pain from shingles is much worse at night. While there are medications that can help they work best on shingles pain if used early in the episode. Shingles itself comes from reactivation of a chickenpox virus varicella zoster.

Shingles can appear many years after the initial chickenpox infection. The pain of shingles is for many people quite striking in its severity. When the rash goes away the pain usually goes. Shingles is characterized by pain or a tingling sensation in a limited area on one side of the face or torso followed by a red rash with small fluid filled blisters.

I think the resulting loss of sleep exacerbates things making it even harder to recover due to lack of sleep and the associated stress that causes. Six percent to 70 percent of affected patients ninds notes develop a chronic pain syndrome known as post herpetic neuralgia in which shingles pain persists for months or years after other symptoms subside. The virus travels down nerve fibers to cause a painful skin rash. The rash which can be excruciating is often one sided because it follows the route of the nerves under the skin.

The signs and symptoms of shingles usually affect only a small section of one side of your body. Roughly 30 to 60 of people over age 60 who get shingles go on to develop a chronic pain syndrome called post herpetic neuralgia. People usually only experience shingles once but the infection can recur. Learn about treatment options from a pain management specialist.

If you have shingles symptoms get treatment now and you may avoid permanent nerve pain.