Insomnia

Insomnia is one of the major debilitating factors of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.  When the body doesn't enter REM sleep, it cannot heal.  Along with the various other symptoms of FMS and CFS there is what is often termed a "stage-four sleep disorder."

This prevents the body from entering the fourth stage of sleep, or REM sleep.  Just as the brain starts to shift gears into REM, it is yanked back into wakefulness, thereby depriving the body of needed healing.

You will often find me blogging, or surfing the net when I am unable to write, in the wee hours of the morning.  No matter how tired I am, I can't rest.  No matter how many hours I spend in bed, I am not really getting the sleep that I need.  I continue to have the hope that some day I will fall asleep and rest peacefully, waking up refreshed and clear-headed instead of still exhausted.

This type of insomnia is virtually ubiquitous among FMS and CFS sufferers.  Although I prefer the term strugglers to sufferers, since it denotes the active way we fight to live with these conditions.  To merely suffer implies passivity, and those of us who have lived like this for more than a few years are definitely not passive.

NOTE:  A friend of mine, and an expert on FMS/CFS, has informed me that it is not REM sleep, but the deeper stages of sleep without dreams that are disrupted in the stage-four sleep disorder found in these conditions.