Sleep Problems in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia

Ironically, two diseases that make a person feel as though it would be possible to sleep for 20 hours a day, often cause sleep problems. Sleep disturbances, or sleep disorders as they are more commonly named, cause insomnia, delayed sleep phase syndrome, restless leg syndrome, and an inability to reach a deep stage of sleep.

This article, printed by the “New York Times,” discusses how sleeping pills are overused in the United States. It further goes on to say that physicians should be looking for the underlying problems that cause sleep disorders, rather than cover them up with a sleeping aid. That sounds all fine and hunky-dory.

But there is an amazing hole in this whole theory. It is the part where physicians listen. Because that is what they don’t do. They haven’t the foggiest clue what to do about their CFS/FM patients. It is a double edged sword and it is one that almost always pierces the patient.

Patients with CFS/FM are encouraged, though the media, the nurses, the clinic, and occasionally by the doctor, to be sure and explain all of the symptoms. “Just the facts, ma’am,” as Joe Friday would have said. But when the patients do relay this information, it is blown off as another part of the syndrome and “that’s just the way it is,” or the infamous (and incredibility aggravating) response of, “It’s all in your head.” (There are many ways to say that, by the way. Just because you haven’t heard that exact quote, doesn’t mean it hasn’t been said to you. Is this familiar? You are under too much stress, you work too hard, you are depressed… regardless of how it is phrased, it means the same thing: It’s all in your head.)

I do think there is some validity in the issue of overprescribing sleep aids. It is an issue for many other medications as well. But this isn’t the patient’s fault. This is the fault of a medical profession that is too busy, or too bewildered by chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.

Let’s put the responsibility where it belongs. Patients with CFS and FM have been overlooked, brushed aside, and not taken seriously. We would love to take fewer medications. Give us the respect we deserve as patients, and we will be more inclined to come to you with the medical problems you are sworn to treat.

What’s Holding Up the Sandman?