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

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quality <strong>in</strong> FMS (Crofford et al., 2005; Hauser, Bernardy et al., 2009; Russell et al.,<br />

2009); however, this study revealed that participants tak<strong>in</strong>g these medications still<br />

experienced significant sleep disturbance that disrupted their daily lives, support<strong>in</strong>g the<br />

need for a multifaceted treatment approach.<br />

Strength <strong>and</strong> Limitations<br />

The f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs of this study strengthen the <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g body of evidence that sleep quality<br />

plays an important role <strong>in</strong> the exacerbation of symptoms <strong>in</strong> FMS (Korszun et al., 2002).<br />

This qualitative study exp<strong>and</strong>ed on a number of areas highlighted <strong>in</strong> previous<br />

quantitative studies. For example, participant‟s descriptions of the effects of poor sleep<br />

provide further evidence that the l<strong>in</strong>ks between pa<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> sleep <strong>in</strong> FMS are bi-directional.<br />

In addition, it also became evident that <strong>in</strong> support of the quantitative f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs, night-<br />

time awaken<strong>in</strong>gs appeared to be a significant difficulty for people with FMS. However,<br />

it also emerged from the <strong>in</strong>terviews, that people described wak<strong>in</strong>g up suddenly dur<strong>in</strong>g<br />

the night <strong>and</strong> feel<strong>in</strong>g very alert which may help <strong>in</strong> our underst<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>g of the causes of<br />

these disturbances. The anxiety surround<strong>in</strong>g sleep <strong>and</strong> the expectations of a bad night<br />

elicited <strong>in</strong> this study supports the exploration of stress <strong>and</strong> beliefs about sleep discussed<br />

<strong>in</strong> Study Two, <strong>and</strong> highlights the need to address the reported mental alertness at night<br />

as part of a sleep <strong>in</strong>tervention to improve sleep quality for this population.<br />

This study has also aided the explanation of the unexpected f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the first study<br />

which revealed low correlations between cop<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> health outcomes <strong>in</strong> FMS. It<br />

became apparent <strong>in</strong> this qualitative study that cop<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> FMS is a complex process, <strong>and</strong><br />

that the high symptom variability affected the strategies people employed to cope with<br />

their symptoms. For example <strong>in</strong> this study, poor sleep was found to reduce people‟s<br />

ability to utilise problem focused cop<strong>in</strong>g strategies, <strong>and</strong> many participants reported<br />

us<strong>in</strong>g relaxation based approaches to improve their sleep. Increases <strong>in</strong> the use of<br />

relaxation <strong>and</strong> physical activity were found to be significantly related to improvements<br />

<strong>in</strong> outcome, <strong>in</strong> a cl<strong>in</strong>ical trial of a multifaceted cognitive behavioural <strong>in</strong>tervention <strong>in</strong><br />

people with FMS (Nielson & Jensen, 2004). The use of relaxation <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g<br />

physical activity were not specifically explored as cop<strong>in</strong>g strategies with<strong>in</strong> the generic<br />

cop<strong>in</strong>g measure (The COPE scale) used <strong>in</strong> the study, described <strong>in</strong> Chapter Four. This<br />

suggests that further studies us<strong>in</strong>g a more specific measure of cop<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> FMS,<br />

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