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Sick and Tired: Understanding and Managing Sleep Difficulties in ...

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“In some ways it‟s more difficult because I‟m so tired I don‟t have the<br />

energy to cope with th<strong>in</strong>gs, so I th<strong>in</strong>k they get me down a bit more.” [007<br />

F53]<br />

Expect<strong>in</strong>g a ‘bad night’<br />

All of the participants <strong>in</strong>terviewed had experienced disturbed sleep for a number of<br />

years <strong>and</strong> almost expected to sleep poorly, especially if they were experienc<strong>in</strong>g high<br />

levels of pa<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> fatigue.<br />

“You almost know, that‟s psychological aga<strong>in</strong>, you almost know you‟ve had<br />

a fairly bad period you‟re not go<strong>in</strong>g to sleep well either or is it a fact?”<br />

[002 F61]<br />

Another participant elaborated:<br />

“I do all my strategies <strong>and</strong> they wouldn‟t work so go<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> mak<strong>in</strong>g a mug<br />

of weak tea <strong>and</strong> com<strong>in</strong>g back to bed <strong>and</strong> listen<strong>in</strong>g to the radio, someth<strong>in</strong>g to<br />

warm myself for an hour or two <strong>and</strong> then eventually I might drop off aga<strong>in</strong>,<br />

but I might have been awake for two or three hours before I‟m ready to<br />

sleep aga<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> then I‟d wake at the normal time anyway or I might wake u<br />

about half past five, so they‟d be like two blocks of sleep separated by a very<br />

long period of mental hyperactivity um, <strong>and</strong> this has been happen<strong>in</strong>g pretty<br />

much all the time, so it was gett<strong>in</strong>g to the po<strong>in</strong>t where I was actually gett<strong>in</strong>g<br />

quite anxious about go<strong>in</strong>g to sleep.” [008 F60]<br />

Theme Three. Cop<strong>in</strong>g with disturbed sleep<br />

In addition to cop<strong>in</strong>g with their symptoms of pa<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> fatigue, as outl<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> previous<br />

qualitative studies <strong>in</strong> FMS (Lempp et al., 2009; Madden & Sim, 2006; Sim & Madden,<br />

2008; Undel<strong>and</strong> & Malterud, 2007), participants talked specifically about how they<br />

managed their sleep difficulties dur<strong>in</strong>g the night <strong>and</strong> the effects of poor sleep the<br />

follow<strong>in</strong>g day.<br />

Search<strong>in</strong>g for answers<br />

Little <strong>in</strong>formation had been given to participants from health professionals on how to<br />

manage their FMS or sleep difficulties effectively. As a result, participants appeared<br />

desperate to seek answers <strong>and</strong> described try<strong>in</strong>g a whole range of strategies to improve<br />

their sleep quality:<br />

“I put ear plugs <strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> I f<strong>in</strong>d when I put ear plugs <strong>in</strong> I seem to sleep<br />

different... although I don‟t like th<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong> my ears, if it means I‟m go<strong>in</strong>g to<br />

sleep a bit better, so whether that‟s about noise, although it‟s very quiet<br />

119

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