People with fibromyalgia also suffer from sleep disturbances. At night, patients wake up at least 6 times a night.
The vast majority of people with fibromyalgia have trouble sleeping. And according to a Canadian study published in the Clinical Journal of Pain, patients suffer from specific sleep disorders. This disorder may be a new indicator of this difficult-to-diagnose pathology.
Fibromyalgia is actually an unknown and poorly supported disease. But it is not uncommon: between 2 and 3 million French people are affected. They feel pain throughout the body, without being able to identify the source of these diseases. These diffuse pains are associated with an attack by nerve fibers that transmit pain information or a change in pain control. Patients also complain of fatigue, anxiety and insomnia.
Patients wake up 6 times a night.
To understand the nature of sleep disorders in people with fibromyalgia, researchers from the University of Ontario (Canada) studied 132 patients, 109 with insomnia and 52 people without sleep problems. For two consecutive nights, her complete dream was recorded by polysomnography. Thanks to the electrodes placed on the scalp and on the faces of the volunteers, the researchers were able to analyze the duration of sleep, the cycles and the different stages of sleep, as well as the time to fall asleep.
Restore a continuous dream.
This work suggests that people with fibromyalgia don’t have the same sleep problems as people with insomnia. By identifying these differences, professionals can diagnose and treat these disorders more effectively. For fibromyalgia, treatment would reduce the frequency of waking episodes and maintain continuous sleep.
A study published in the Journal of Neurophysiology in February last year indicated that these sleep disturbances occurred in the thalamus, an area of the brain that regulates sleep. Researchers at UC Berkeley have noted abnormalities in deep sleep waves. But the latter could be restored thanks to a drug prescribed for narcolepsy. A discovery that offers a treatment option to restore sleep and relieve fibromyalgia.
