I have trouble sleeping. Is this part of the fibromyalgia?
I have trouble sleeping. Is this part of the fibromyalgia?
Most fibromyalgia patients have an associated sleep disorder called the alpha-EEG anomaly. This condition was uncovered in a sleep lab with the aid of a machine that recorded brain waves of patients during sleep. Researchers found that most fibromyalgia patients could fall asleep without much trouble, but their deep level (or stage 4) sleep was constantly interrupted by bursts of awake-like brain activity. Patients appeared to spend the night with one foot in sleep and the other one out of it.
If you wake up feeling as though you’ve just been run over by a Mack truck—what doctors refer to as “unrefreshing sleep”—it is reasonable for your physician to assume that you have a sleep disorder. However, to pinpoint the types of sleep disturbances present, an overnight sleep study may be warranted. In addition to the alpha-EEG finding, other sleep disorders have been identified in fibromyalgia patients, including sleep apnea (as well as the newly discovered form of interrupted breathing called upper airway resistance syndrome, or UARS), bruxism (teeth grinding), periodic limb movements during sleep (jerking of arms and legs), and restless legs syndrome (difficulty sitting still in the evenings).