Sleep in the Fibromyalgia Patient

Vol. 1 No. 1

Year: 2011

Issue: Feb-Apr

Title: Sleep in the Fibromyalgia Patient 

Author Name: Linda Carol Hughes 

Synopsis:

It is estimated that fibromyalgia, a chronic condition in which pain occurs in 98% of the patients, can be found in 3-to 6- million American adults with females as the majority of those suffering. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between sleep-wake disturbance (i.e. daily and mean number of awakenings each night, daily and mean percentage of sleep each night) and the daily and mean morning/evening intensity of chronic pain in a subset of women with fibromyalgia, based on daily actigraph recordings over seventy-two hours. Actigraph testing was completed on a convenience sample of 85 female participants, as part of a larger research study of 107 fibromyalgia patients. Results indicated significant associations between the evening intensity of pain, measured by a visual analog scale, and the night awakenings. The progressive association between the number of awakenings and pain should prompt further attention given to the sleep-wake disturbance in the fibromyalgia patient in the form of improved interventions directed to effective sleep.