About the fatigue

For me, my fibromyalgia has two significant symptoms: excruciating burning nerve pain and fatigue. In some ways, the fatigue is the one I struggle to cope the most with because I don't understand why I am so tired.

When I say fatigue I am talking about being more than just tired; it's exhausting. I will come home from work at 6pm and suddenly need to take a nap. I can be fine one minute and then all of a sudden have an urge to sleep where there is nothing else I can do but close my eyes. Fatigue is said to affect 4 in 5 people who suffer from fibromyalgia. This also inevitably affects my social life as sometimes I just can't take part in social activities as I am just too tired. There have been many times where I have attempted to go out and socialise with my friends as any normal 25 year old would however I have fallen asleep at parties or had to leave due to my exhaustion. This is one of the most frustrating things for me - not being able to do what my friends are doing but also that people just don't understand why I'm not able to stay out late and party with them.

What causes this fatigue?

There are a few theories about what causes fatigue in fibromyalgia patients. Many fibromyalgia patients don't remember waking up frequently during the night however we do have abnormal sleep patterns. I don't necessarily remember being awake during the night but my Fitbit shows me that I am awake for around an hour every night. Studies have shown that fibromyalgia patients lack deep sleep which is the stage of sleep where the body restores and refreshes itself. Statistics suggest that we need around 20% of deep sleep in order for our bodies to be fully restored - if I'm lucky I get 16%. One of the possible reasons why fibromyalgia patients don't get enough deep sleep is that we could be awakened by bursts of "awake" brain activity due to the imbalance of brain chemicals which is thought to cause the illness.

Another reason why us fibrofighters might suffer from so much fatigue is due to our bodies trying to fight so much pain every minute of every day. The constant release of pain signals by our nerves makes you tired as our bodies are essentially fighting themselves. I definitely find that constantly battling the pain both physically and mentally is exhausting.

What can we do to combat fatigue?

In writing this blog post I decided to research things that could be done to potentially reduce fatigue and I will be putting some of these ideas into practice over the coming weeks and share my results...

• Stick to a schedule: Training your body to go to sleep at the same time every night so that your body just becomes naturally sleepy around that time.

• Avoiding caffeine: It is easy to think that a good way to fight fatigue is with a good, strong cup of coffee. However, it is suggested that avoiding caffeine from the afternoon onwards may help us to get a more restful night's sleep. I will certainly be investing in some decaffeinated tea as I can't not have a cup of tea before bedtime!

• Vegetarianism: A plant-based diet helps your body to feel healthier and more alert. Studies have shown that this has improved fatigue in fibromyalgia sufferers. Luckily for me I am already a vegetarian for other reasons however this probably won't help me to reduce my fatigue.

• Exercising: One of the suggestions you see all the time but in times of fibro flares and severe pain it just feels impossible. When I am not in the midst of a fibro flare I do enjoy exercising and am going to consciously try to push myself to exercise even when I'm not feeling too great as I know it will help my body and helps it to regulate yourself.

• Take naps: YES! Who doesn't love a good nap? Taking a nap during the day can shake off some of that fatigue. However, we must remember not to nap so much that we can't fall asleep at night.

These are just some of the things that can help to reduce fatigue and that I will be trying over the next few weeks. If you follow this blog do you have any methods you use to reduce your fatigue?