Are you feeling tired right now?....I am, because once again, last night, I have lain awake for over two and a half hours, after waking from my much needed sleep.
In an attempt to get back to my wonderful slumber.....I tossed and turned, rolled and stretched, I kicked the quilt off, pulled it back on, removed pillows, replaced pillows...I opened the door, shut the door (to block out the light from the landing)....I went downstairs to have some warm milk, back up the stairs and in a final attempt to get back to sleep, I put the pillow over my head (nearly suffocating myself!)....then the birds outside started to sing!!...Oh how I wish I could 'SLEEP ON'...sleep on, right through the night......until the blessed morning!!
SLEEP DeprivatiON....as many readers will know, is a common occurrence for Fibromyalgia sufferers. Studies into the links between sleep disturbance and FMS, using EEG recordings of alpha waves, have shown that many individuals with the syndrome actually have a sleep disorder called 'Alpha EEG Anomaly', where deep sleep is lost through abnormal bursts of activity (showing up in the EEG readings as rapid 'alpha' brain waves in place of slower 'delta' brain waves) and thus waking when we should be in a lovely deep sleep, resulting in rising in the morning.......feeling as if we haven't slept at all, with pain, stiffness, fibro fog, slurred speach and the 'Big F' (fatigue)!
I have not personally had the pleasure of having an Electroencephalograph (EEG) machine attached to my brain, however I am quite certain that if I were to have my 'alpha' and 'delta' waves monitored and recorded, the annoying 'alpha' would be showing up during my sleep cycle where the darling 'delta' should be!
Please click the attachment here for more information on FMS and sleep disorders:- http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_sleep_disorders.html
As you will have read, 'Alpha EEG Anomaly' is not the only sleep disorder that individuals with FMS may have, many sufferers live with multiple sleep disorders, for example, 'Insomnia', 'Sleep Apnea', 'Jerky Legs' (and arms) and 'Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome', to name a few. Of course any single sleep disorder can have an enormous impact on a sufferers life, affecting all physical, intellectual, emotional and social aspects. You will see by clicking on the further link below, that sleep disorders are generally catagorised into the following four groups:-
1. Problems with falling and staying asleep
2. Problems with staying awake
3. Problems with sticking to a regular sleep pattern
4. Unusual behavoirs during sleep
Click here:- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001803/
Like many FMS and other 'invisible illness' sufferers, I generally have problems with:-
1.Falling and staying asleep
2. Staying awake.
There has been many an occasion when I have had a terrible night sleeping and found it very hard to keep awake at work the following day. This often happened when I sat down at my computer after returning from a teaching session...which can be quite embarrassing in the middle of a busy college team room (jokes about being out on the tiles all night or partying hard were a common occurrence). If only once in a while the jokes were true, but alas...FMS likes to rule.
I asked at the beginning of this post, are you tired? If like me you have a chronic illness and/or a sleep disorder (diagnosed or not), then, like me...you most probably are. It is a common assumption that regular restorative sleep is the key to better health, and I believe this to be true... if we can manage our sleep disorders, that is half that battle dealt with in the very long war against our invisible and chronic illnesses...because illness cannot win, can it?
Wishing you a happy, pain free, inspiring day...and a restful night...sleep on!
In an attempt to get back to my wonderful slumber.....I tossed and turned, rolled and stretched, I kicked the quilt off, pulled it back on, removed pillows, replaced pillows...I opened the door, shut the door (to block out the light from the landing)....I went downstairs to have some warm milk, back up the stairs and in a final attempt to get back to sleep, I put the pillow over my head (nearly suffocating myself!)....then the birds outside started to sing!!...Oh how I wish I could 'SLEEP ON'...sleep on, right through the night......until the blessed morning!!
SLEEP DeprivatiON....as many readers will know, is a common occurrence for Fibromyalgia sufferers. Studies into the links between sleep disturbance and FMS, using EEG recordings of alpha waves, have shown that many individuals with the syndrome actually have a sleep disorder called 'Alpha EEG Anomaly', where deep sleep is lost through abnormal bursts of activity (showing up in the EEG readings as rapid 'alpha' brain waves in place of slower 'delta' brain waves) and thus waking when we should be in a lovely deep sleep, resulting in rising in the morning.......feeling as if we haven't slept at all, with pain, stiffness, fibro fog, slurred speach and the 'Big F' (fatigue)!
I have not personally had the pleasure of having an Electroencephalograph (EEG) machine attached to my brain, however I am quite certain that if I were to have my 'alpha' and 'delta' waves monitored and recorded, the annoying 'alpha' would be showing up during my sleep cycle where the darling 'delta' should be!
Please click the attachment here for more information on FMS and sleep disorders:- http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_sleep_disorders.html
As you will have read, 'Alpha EEG Anomaly' is not the only sleep disorder that individuals with FMS may have, many sufferers live with multiple sleep disorders, for example, 'Insomnia', 'Sleep Apnea', 'Jerky Legs' (and arms) and 'Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome', to name a few. Of course any single sleep disorder can have an enormous impact on a sufferers life, affecting all physical, intellectual, emotional and social aspects. You will see by clicking on the further link below, that sleep disorders are generally catagorised into the following four groups:-
1. Problems with falling and staying asleep
2. Problems with staying awake
3. Problems with sticking to a regular sleep pattern
4. Unusual behavoirs during sleep
Click here:- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001803/
Like many FMS and other 'invisible illness' sufferers, I generally have problems with:-
1.Falling and staying asleep
2. Staying awake.
There has been many an occasion when I have had a terrible night sleeping and found it very hard to keep awake at work the following day. This often happened when I sat down at my computer after returning from a teaching session...which can be quite embarrassing in the middle of a busy college team room (jokes about being out on the tiles all night or partying hard were a common occurrence). If only once in a while the jokes were true, but alas...FMS likes to rule.
I asked at the beginning of this post, are you tired? If like me you have a chronic illness and/or a sleep disorder (diagnosed or not), then, like me...you most probably are. It is a common assumption that regular restorative sleep is the key to better health, and I believe this to be true... if we can manage our sleep disorders, that is half that battle dealt with in the very long war against our invisible and chronic illnesses...because illness cannot win, can it?
Wishing you a happy, pain free, inspiring day...and a restful night...sleep on!
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