Non-restorative Sleep
Most people with fibromyalgia experience difficulties with sleeping and feel exhausted when they wake up, irrespective of how long they slept. Pain is always one reason for this, but people with fibromyalgia are also more likely to have sleep-related symptoms such as sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome than normal, causing breathing to pause momentarily while sleeping. Such sleep disturbances can prevent a person from getting a deep sleep that makes it possible to relax muscles and repair tissues. This lack of quality rest can add to the mental acuity and fatigue problems of fibromyalgia. Lack of sleep has been shown to make suffering much worse for individuals that do not have chronic for the disease.