Does poor sleep make pain worse?

Short answer

Yes. Staying up all night lowered the point at which people felt pain, and people with sleep problems had a 1.79 times higher risk of developing new chronic pain. Sleeping 1.8 hours more a night made people less sensitive to pain.

Does poor sleep make pain worse?
'Less sleep → more pain' — does this formula hold?
Many people say that after a bad night, post-workout soreness or back and shoulder pain feels worse. We checked whether sleep and pain are really linked, from a single night to several years later.
What happens after an all-nighter?
The point where pain starts drops
An analysis that pooled 31 experiments with 699 people found that staying up all night lowered both the point where pain starts to be felt and how much pain people could tolerate. Cutting sleep only partly also increased pain felt even at rest.
What happens in the brain?
Pain signals get louder, pain control gets weaker
Brain scans after a sleepless night showed the area that receives body sensations reacted more strongly to pain, while areas that regulate pain became dulled. In daily life, too, pain went down the day after sleeping better than usual and up the day after sleeping worse.
What if it goes on for years?
79 times the risk of new chronic pain
An analysis that pooled 20 studies following 208,190 people found that those with sleep problems had 1.79 times the risk of developing new chronic muscle or joint pain, and 2.04 times the risk of that pain persisting. In reverse, people with pain had 2.02 times the risk of developing sleep problems.
Couldn't pain be what ruins sleep?
Even by genetics, insomnia raised back pain
An analysis of studies that use inborn genetic differences to sort out cause and effect found insomnia raised the risk of back pain 1.38 times. That was similar in size to a high body mass index (1.18 times) and smoking (1.30 times). Poor sleep was not only a result of pain but also a cause.
What about getting injured in sports?
Those always short on sleep got hurt 1.58 times more
An analysis that pooled 7 studies of athletes aged 19 or under found those who were always short on sleep had 1.58 times the risk of sports or muscle and bone injuries compared with good sleepers. In 5 of the 7 studies, those with long-term sleep loss got hurt more.
In reverse, does more sleep mean less pain?
8 hours more sleep a night made people less sensitive
Of 18 people who were sleepy during the day, those who spent 10 hours in bed for 4 nights slept 1.8 hours more a night than usual and took longer to pull a finger away from a hot stimulus. They had become less sensitive to pain. Those who slept as usual showed no change.
Summary: poor sleep did make pain worse
The formula holds, and the longer it lasts, the bigger the risk
Staying up all night lowered the pain threshold, and even a one-night difference changed pain the next day. People with ongoing sleep problems had 1.79 times the risk of new chronic pain. Sleeping more made people less sensitive to pain.