Pain, Sleep, and Consciousness in the Mental Hyperspace - FALAN LatBrain SfN 2025 Brain Bee

Pain, Sleep, and Consciousness in the Mental Hyperspace - FALAN LatBrain SfN 2025 Brain Bee

“I am Consciousness moving silently through the body. When I fall asleep, some pains hide behind tensions that feel normal. But little by little, as my sleep deepens, the pain threshold drops — and what I could not feel while awake begins to emerge. The shoe that didn’t bother me now feels tight, the position of my arm needs to shift. It is not punishment, it is a signal. It is the body asking me to reposition so that healing can continue within normality.”

Pain as an Integrated Nociceptive Marker

Pain is, at its origin, a nociceptive marker: it arises from the activation of peripheral nociceptors detecting mechanical, thermal, or chemical threats.
Yet the brain does not read this signal in isolation. Once processed in integration hubs (thalamus, somatosensory cortex, insula, anterior cingulate), pain is combined with interoception (visceral and autonomic states) and proprioception (bodily maps and posture).
Through this integration, pain ceases to be just an alarm and becomes a reference for consciousness — guiding repositioning of the body and initiating repair processes.

Sleep and the Pain Threshold

During stressed wakefulness, descending circuits (locus coeruleus, raphe nuclei, endogenous opioids) elevate the pain threshold – a state of stress-induced analgesia. This masks minor tensions.
As sleep begins, the situation changes:

• N1 – The sensory threshold
  The pain threshold starts to drop. Subtle tensions, previously unnoticed, become detectable. This explains why falling asleep with shoes on suddenly feels uncomfortable — the brain signals the need to reposition or remove the object.
  
  

• N2 – Autonomic stabilization
  With sleep spindles and K-complexes, thalamocortical gating adjusts nociceptive input. The system filters some pain but maintains enough sensitivity to awaken if necessary.
  
  

• N3 – Deep repair
  The pain threshold is tuned to protect deep sleep. Growth hormone and IGF-1 are released, inflammation is reduced, and metabolic repair is reinforced. Pain is dampened to allow restoration.
  
  

• Tonic REM – Proprioceptive recalibration
  With the body paralyzed, the brain reorganizes musculoskeletal maps. This recalibration helps correct chronic tension patterns that feed pain.
  
  

• Phasic REM – Emotional integration of pain
  Rapid eye movements, autonomic surges, and vivid imagery allow processing of the emotional burden of pain, embedding nociception into integrated memory.
  
  

Central Insight

Pain originates as a nociceptive signal, but in sleep it is reconfigured into interoceptive–proprioceptive experience.
At the threshold between wakefulness and N1, we learn that what didn’t hurt before now becomes bothersome because the pain threshold descends, forcing us to adjust position or release hidden tensions.
In Zone 3, this mechanism is disrupted: ideologies or medications silence pain too early, preventing the body from using sleep to reposition and heal within physiological normality.

Neuroscientific References (post-2020)

• Colgan, D. D., et al. (2024). Sleep disturbances predict greater pain intensity and interference through reduced interoceptive awareness. PAIN.
  

• Garfinkel, S. N., et al. (2025). Cardiac interoceptive accuracy and pain thresholds: evidence for altered interoception in chronic pain. PAIN.
  

• Khalsa, S. S., et al. (2023). The relationship between pain and interoception: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
  

• Weiniger, C., et al. (2024). Postural consciousness and the integration of interoception and proprioception in the insula. Frontiers in Neuroscience.
  

• Ueno, H., et al. (2023). Interoception, autonomic regulation, and the sense of self. Frontiers in Neuroscience.
  

• Simor, P., et al. (2021). Heartbeat-evoked potentials during phasic and tonic REM sleep.
  

• Simor, P., et al. (2025). Differential interoceptive processing in the anterior thalamus across phasic and tonic REM sleep.
  

• Schrimpf, M., et al. (2021). Sleep deprivation increases pain sensitivity and reduces pain tolerance.
  

• Zhang, Y., et al. (2022). Thalamocortical dynamics and nociceptive processing across sleep stages.
  

• Li, W., et al. (2023). Prefrontal-accumbens ensembles link sleep disturbances and chronic pain amplification.