the right sleep for a person with chronic fatigue syndrome
July 19, 2006 by laura
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Lately my inner time clock has been severly messed up. I am in some sort of hibernation period. Unusual for summer. During the school year (sept – june) I work 2 jobs. Both of them basically full time. Most of the time I handle them well….but for a few weeks in November and in April/May, i get very stressed out. For the most part though, I am able to keep up with the pace.
Now its summer, and I am back to one job, but I am way more tired. Why? Well I am thinking its because now I have the time to be tired, and so I am catching up on the sleep that I don’t get throughout the year. Its the only one that is making sense to me.
After work I come home, do a little cleaning, or whatever is on the schedule….it takes no more than an hour. I have a little something for dinner, and watch a movie or read a few pages or something along those lines. It never fails though, I will be fast asleep by 7:30. I could have gone hiking after work….and I will still be asleep by then. Something needs to be done. I am getting special energy inducing treatments from my acupuncturist, as well as trying some herbal supplements. I will let you know soon how they are working for me.
In the meantime I have been snooping around the internet for some tips on how to change my sleeping pattern. I found this really interesting site, that explains how it doesn’t matter how much you sleep….but what matters is the number itself. It should be divisible by 90 minutes. I am not advocating this. I just find it interesting.
Here is what the Centre for Applied Cognitive Studies says about this way of sleeping,
“Studies show that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking. The key factor is the number of complete sleep cycles we enjoy. Each sleep cycle contains five distinct phases, which exhibit different brain- wave patterns. For our purposes, it suffices to say that one sleep cycle lasts an average of 90 minutes: 65 minutes of normal, or non-REM (rapid eye movement), sleep; 20 minutes of REM sleep (in which we dream); and a final 5 minutes of non-REM sleep. The REM sleep phases are shorter during earlier cycles (less than 20 minutes) and longer during later ones (more than 20 minutes). If we were to sleep completely naturally, with no alarm clocks or other sleep disturbances, we would wake up, on the average, after a multiple of 90 minutes–for example, after 4 1/2 hours, 6 hours, 7 1/2 hours, or 9 hours, but not after 7 or 8 hours, which are not multiples of 90 minutes. In the period between cycles we are not actually sleeping: it is a sort of twilight zone from which, if we are not disturbed (by light, cold, a full bladder, noise), we move into another 90-minute cycle. A person who sleeps only four cycles (6 hours) will feel more rested than someone who has slept for 8 to 10 hours but who has not been allowed to complete any one cycle because of being awakened before it was completed…. ”
For the next couple of weeks, I have decided to try it out.
It amazes me the differences of people’s functioning with CFS — that you work — not part-time but 2 jobs at times and fulltime at one job
and sleep is an issue for you. I don’t understand
Sleep being a huge issue I haven’t been able to work at all for a long time. All I’m saying is I cdon’t understand how a person with even mild CFS and sleep isuues can do anything but part-time work I get that
Thanks for the comment Pat,
Here is a little bit of a background of my journey with CFS. I have lived with this illness for 9 years. For almost 2 years I did not work at all.
In fact, I had to move back in with my parents because I was not able to take care of myself. After almost 2 years of living with CFS- I took a safe job, one that would allow me to take off time whenever I needed to, and not have to worry about losing my job…my employer completely understood about my predicament.
It has been an incredibly long process for me to be where I am now. Yes, I work 2 jobs…one being full time-and the other almost full time (if you add up the amount of hours I put into preparation). But it was not always the case.
While I consider myself to live CFS-free (on the day to day stuff)- OK I am being extremely optimistic here. I have a severely compromised immune system due to CFS – hence the pneumonia.
What did I do to get this far? The very best thing I did was get off the meds. I looked for other methods (acupuncture, qi gong,alexander technique) – and they worked, for me.
Other than that, basically I just “sucked it up” and did my best to move on. I have a rule that I live by now….and that is, if I can get out of bed then I can go to work. If I am not able to get out of bed, then I stay home, and wont feel guilty about it. Sometimes, if I get to work, and its very apparent that I shouldn’t be there-I will walk out of the office and go back home. It may sound simple and unbelievable….but its how I (and others with CFS) live.
I also have to work really hard at not identifying with my illness. Not always do-able, especially when I am feeling less than great….but when I don’t think about it so much, I do feel better.
Oh, and I don’t always cope well with 2+ jobs. Anyone at my office can tell you how I am, when I am not feeling well…or ask some of the students that I made cry last week….or even the channel editor, who oversees this blog (when I don’t post regularly).
I am sorry to hear that you are struggling. I do hope that you are able to find a way that will help you feel better.