Fatigue
Besides pain, fatigue is the most common fibromyalgia
symptom. It is experienced in varying degrees by all patients and its impact on
quality of life is often overwhelming. Quality of sleep plays an important role
in the fatigue experience. For various reasons most fibromyalgia patients do
not reach stage 3 and 4 sleep, the level where dreams occur, causing people to
awaken feeling unrefreshed. This sensation can last all day. When it is time
for bed, the same scenario replays over and over until the person has no energy
to meet the daily challenges of life. Fatigue is one of the most difficult
fibromyalgia symptoms to treat and current medications do not adequately address
this problem. Keeping a daily diary or journal is sometimes beneficial to help
ascertain energy driven activities that might play a role in exceptional fatigue
from day to day. Pacing can play a big part in helping to better utilize a
person’s daily energy allotment. Knowing which actions are the most fatiguing
can allow people to set up a system that may make daily chores and activities
easier to accomplish. It is also important for the patient to have a physician
that understands the sleep abnormalities associated with fibromyalgia so that
correct treatment is administered.
