[lendaddy]

My father suffered from terrible back pain for 20 years. He had surgery, traction equipment, blah blah. He would literally collapse from the pain on a semi-regular basis. Episodes involved 2-5 days in bed.

Then he went to the doctor for sleep aptnia(sp). They wanted to do surgery for that but first sent him to Michigan State University for a 3 day "sleep study". They found that he was getting ZERO R.E.M sleep. The doctors there asked if he also had back problems. He thought that was odd for them to ask but told them his story. They said without R.E.M. sleep your muscles never fully relax and that is why his back gave him problems. They prescribed a sleeping aid and he has not had one incident of back pain since (over 10 years now). FWIW.