Sleep and Fibromyalgia
Introduction[edit | edit source]
Fibromyalgia is a musculoskeletal condition characterized by widespread chronic muscle pain and fatigue, sleep disturbances, cognitive disorders, and mood disturbances.
Criteria for diagnosis[edit | edit source]
The criteria for diagnosis of fibromyalgia is generalised chronic pain covering 19 regions, with the presence of additional measures of seep, fatigue, cognitive, mood symptoms and other sources of pain.
Sleep and fibromyalgia[edit | edit source]
A common symptom of fibromyalgia is it effect on sleep. Sleep problems are common and may increase their symptoms contributing to insomnia and poor sleep. Fibromyalgia and sleep have a two-way relationship, in which one affects the other. Poor sleep can intensify the feelings of pain and tenderness. furthermore, lowering the persons pain threshold. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/fibromyalgia-and-sleep#:~:text=Sleep%20and%20fibromyalgia%20share%20a,lower%20a%20person's%20pain%20threshold.
Physiology[edit | edit source]
According to researches, people with fibromyalgia has lower pain threshold as compared to people without this condition. The two common symptoms include non-restorative sleep and daytime fatigue. People with this condition experience wakefulness during non rapid eye movement (NREM) during the stages of sleep cycle.
Evidence[edit | edit source]
According to a research done in California, to examine sleep, pain, depression in people with fibromyalgia. The study concluded that there was high prevalence of sleep problems and suggest that they play a crucial role in exacerbating FMS symptoms. Sleep quality was measured using Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and pain using McGill pain questionnaire. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3691959/
Affleck et al, investigated pain and sleep problems for over a period of 30 day in patients with FMS symptoms, using handheld devices to record sleep quality. Their findings suggested that sleep difficulties the night before predicted increased pain during the day, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9121825/
Poor sleep quality and pain can have a significant impact on the overall quality of life of FM patients https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28545798/
Epidemiological studies indicate that lower sleep quality is a risk factor for fibromyalgia; poor sleep is strongly and dose-dependently associated with symptom severity [14,15] in the fibromyalgia population. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/9/6/1763
