Can Sleep Problems Induce Fibromyalgia?

A new study published in the journal Sleep may provide insight into the mysterious disease known as fibromyalgia.  The disease impacts over 6 million individuals, with most of those being women.  Additionally, the disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat.  Because fibromyalgia has no known cause, traditional treatment options are limited, and many do not keep the symptoms at bay for very long.  This new study regarding sleep disorders, however, may be able to show a link between disrupted sleep patterns and fibromyalgia.

The study consisted of 28 women (since women are the majority of fibromyalgia sufferers) who were examined for sleep patterns. 14 of the women noted that they snored on a regular basis, 4 snored occasionally, and 10 noted they never snored.  In addition to these fibromyalgia sufferers, the study also examined 11 women who did not have that particular disease, rather they had upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS).  UARS is a less severe form of the traditional sleep apnea, in which individuals stop breathing numerous times during the night, in intervals of 10 seconds or more.  With UARS, the patients have mild obstruction to breathing during sleep because the soft tissues collapse.

The women underwent sleep examinations to measure the amount of inspiratory airflow and to discover how much continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was needed to alleviate the obstruction.  Of the 28 fibromyalgia participants, 26 were found to have UARS and one had sleep apnea.  Of the UARS-specific group, all participants showed a limitation in respiratory airflow.  To further study what these figures meant, the researchers requested that 14 of the fibromyalgia patients undergo CPAP nasal treatments for 3 weeks.  They found, with this treatment, 47% improvement of gastrointestinal symptoms, 46% improvement in fatigue, 39% improvement in sleep problems, 33% improvement in rheumatic symptoms, 30% improvement in pain, and 28% improvement in functional disability.  Further, some of the patients opted to stay on CPAP therapy after the conclusion of the study.

The researchers concluded that the limitation of airflow during sleep was a likely cause for some of the fibromyalgia symptoms.  Further research is necessary and certainly larger, more varied participant groups should be evaluated.  At first glance, however, the study appears to provide good news for fibromyalgia sufferers due to the fact that most of the participants had some form of inspiratory sleep airway obstruction, which can be alleviated by CPAP treatments.  These CPAP treatment devices are readily available and fairly simple to operate.  The authors of the study opine that CPAP may, in time, become the most efficient and effective method of treating those with fibromyalgia.