Drinking coffee is a double-edged sword. It can be the bringer of immense pain, like when you’re walking the floor at Expo, drinking every shot of espresso and mini filter coffee offered to you by disembodied hands extending from booths innumerable. Now Coffee is become Death, destroyer of bowels. But there are other times, as noted in a recent article from Extra Crispy, that coffee grants us mercy and can actually help relieve chronic pain.

The article is referencing a recent study performed by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital that appeared in the May 8th edition of Nature Medicine, where sleep-deprived mice were found to be more sensitive to pain. The article notes that losing as little as one hour a night can eventually lead to additional pain sensitivity.