10 Helpful Tips For Better Sleep With Fibromyalgia Pain

Fibromyalgia is characterized by chronic widespread pain and heightened sensitivity to pressure. Other primary symptoms are fatigue, sleeping issues, and stiffness in the joints.

Some people may also have difficulty with swallowing and bowel and bladder abnormalities. Fibromyalgia remains unexplained by medicine at this point and can affect men, women and children of all ages.

People with fibromyalgia often have very disturbed sleep according to Doris Cope, MD, director of Pain Management at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

She has concluded that even if they sleep for more than 10 hours a night, they still don't feel rested. Research shows that fibromyalgia brings an automatic arousal in brain during sleep. The frequency of disruptions keeps the important restorative processes from happening at all.

Outgrowth hormone is mainly produced during sleep. Without restorative sleep growth muscles won't heal and neurotransmitters remain depleted.. The lack of a proper night's sleep makes people with fibromyalgia wake up feeling un-rested and fatigued.

The result is that the body cannot recuperate from a day's stress. This will overwhelm the system and create an exaggerated sensitivity to pain. The pain is often widespread. The sleep problems can cause anxiety, depression, fatigue, and memory problems.

The insomnia can take many forms. Whether it is trouble falling asleep or trouble waking up too often during the night, the results are miserable. Trouble getting back to sleep if woken up and waking up far too early in the morning are also symptoms of insomnia for fibromyalsia patients.

Medications have been shown to enhance sleep while relieving pain but a lifestyle change will help sleep come more naturally.

10 Secrets for Better Sleep with Fibromyalgia

Creating a comfortable zone at home is one the most important keys to better sleep, whether you have this illness or not. It's all about getting calm at bedtime and trying to stay that way.

These 10 tips will help you sleep better:

1. Take a soothing warm bath in the evening before bed. You can bring candles or whatever makes you most calm.

2. Use aromatherapy. Our sense of smell has the power to transform our emotions. Lavender has a very calming and therapeutic effect.

3. Give relief to painful tender spots with a self massage device or tennis ball.

4. Do yoga and stretch to relax your muscles and get you breathing very deeply and slowly. Your breath is very important in any pain management.

5. Listen to calming music. Even if you prefer not-so-calming music, try putting on some something that doesn't over stimulate you.

6. Meditate to get a handle on intrusive thoughts and tension. Meditating in general helps to alleviate anxiety. Anxiety will often arise before a person tries to fall asleep especially if they are experiencing prolonged insomnia. Meditation before sleep will get you to focus on deep breathing and help to evade intrusive thinking.

7. Sleep in a very dark room. If you find them comfortable, try an eye mask.

8. Keep the room your are sleeping in as quiet and constant as possible or try a white-noise machine.

9. Make sure the room temperature is comfortable. If the temperature doesn't remain constant, it could make it very difficult to get comfortable.

10. Avoid foods that contain caffeine and high sugar content.

Following these tips can help people suffering from pain with fibromyalgia to fall asleep and sleep through the night.