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

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of diary to assess levels of pa<strong>in</strong> at several different times over the course of a 24 hour<br />

period (Affleck et al., 1998). It may also be the case that the <strong>in</strong>tervention may have<br />

different affects on weekdays <strong>and</strong> weekends, <strong>and</strong> between those who are employed <strong>and</strong><br />

those not work<strong>in</strong>g, as people are more likely to have a consistent sleep pattern dur<strong>in</strong>g<br />

the week if they are employed. Further exploration of these factors needs to be<br />

considered <strong>in</strong> future research.<br />

As the focus of this feasibility study was to explore the effect on sleep quality, the<br />

measures of pa<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> fatigue were kept short <strong>and</strong> concise <strong>and</strong> therefore did not provide<br />

a comprehensive assessment of the different aspects (physical <strong>and</strong> mental) of fatigue<br />

(Moldofsky & MacFarlane, 2005; Shaver et al., 1997). A more comprehensive<br />

assessment of these outcomes would have been beneficial to explore the effects of the<br />

<strong>in</strong>tervention with<strong>in</strong> this population <strong>and</strong> whether certa<strong>in</strong> types of people or illness<br />

characteristics are more likely to benefit from the <strong>in</strong>tervention than others (Nielson &<br />

Jensen, 2004). As highlighted by Mace (2008) some people f<strong>in</strong>d it easier than others to<br />

experience m<strong>in</strong>dfulness. Indeed, one study revealed that 12.5% of participants were<br />

classed as „marked responders‟ (participants show<strong>in</strong>g an improvement of 75% or more<br />

on the outcome measures), suggest<strong>in</strong>g that they benefitted from the <strong>in</strong>tervention far<br />

more than those classed as responders (participants show<strong>in</strong>g an improvement of 25% or<br />

more on the outcome measures) (Kaplan et al., 1993).<br />

Subsequent to the onset of this study further recommendations on the outcome measures<br />

that should be employed <strong>in</strong> cl<strong>in</strong>ical trials <strong>in</strong> people FMS were published. Although this<br />

study had already <strong>in</strong>cluded many of the recommended outcome measures, such as<br />

measures of pa<strong>in</strong>, fatigue, sleep disturbance <strong>and</strong> depression, the trial did not <strong>in</strong>clude a<br />

measure of patient global satisfaction. A measure of global satisfaction should be<br />

employed with<strong>in</strong> future cl<strong>in</strong>ical trials to ensure that comprehensive outcomes found<br />

both to be important to people with FMS <strong>and</strong> utilised <strong>in</strong> other cl<strong>in</strong>ical trials are <strong>in</strong>cluded<br />

to enable comparisons to be made (Mease et al., 2009).<br />

Implications<br />

This study revealed that a brief m<strong>in</strong>dfulness body scan <strong>in</strong>tervention may improve<br />

subjective <strong>and</strong> objective sleep quality for people with FMS, as positive trends were<br />

149

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