Sleep Disturbances

Not sleeping good?

Sleep disturbances are one of the three primary symptoms of fibromyalgia (widespread pain and fatigue are the others).

There are stages in your sleep that your body must go through to achieve a good night sleep, in fact there are 5. This cycles over and over throughout the night.

Stage 1 – Light sleep and relaxation of the muscles. ( can wake up)
Stage 2 – Activity in the brain slows and eye movement stops.
Stage 3 – Brain waves become slow (delta waves) and small quick waves occur.
Stage 4 – Brain waves are all delta wave.
Stage 5 – (REM) Rapid Eye Movement – dreams occur.

This usually takes about an hour and a half to complete 1 cycle. Sleep is needed for your body to function and recover from the prior days activities properly.

Fibromyalgia sufferers experience interruptions in the sleep cycle. These interruptions may be known (you wake up), or unknown (you don't wake up in the middle of the night, but in the morning when you awake you feel extremely exhausted and unrested).