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

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effect of chronotype of sleep disturbance <strong>in</strong> FMS utilis<strong>in</strong>g a cross-sectional <strong>in</strong>ternet<br />

survey.<br />

Although the studies with<strong>in</strong> this thesis explored the effect of sleep on a number of<br />

outcome variables <strong>in</strong> people with FMS, not all outcomes that are likely to be affected by<br />

sleep disturbance were explored. For example, cognitive difficulties have been proposed<br />

as a key symptom of FMS, <strong>and</strong> one study has shown that memory impairments, mental<br />

confusion <strong>and</strong> speech difficulties are associated with sleep disturbance <strong>in</strong> people with<br />

FMS (Katz, Heard, Mills, & Leavitt, 2004). Although this study has drawn attention to<br />

the role of sleep on cognitive factors <strong>in</strong> FMS, the f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs were limited as cognitive<br />

disturbance was only measured by self-report. Research explor<strong>in</strong>g the effects of sleep<br />

disturbance us<strong>in</strong>g more objective measures of cognitive function<strong>in</strong>g (such as through<br />

the use of st<strong>and</strong>ardised computer adm<strong>in</strong>istered neuropsychological tests), may reveal<br />

more accurately the l<strong>in</strong>ks between sleep <strong>and</strong> cognitive function<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> people with FMS.<br />

This would enable the exploration of the effect of sleep on different components of<br />

cognitive ability (such as memory, attention <strong>and</strong> executive function<strong>in</strong>g) <strong>and</strong> further<br />

exploration is warranted.<br />

Some researchers <strong>in</strong> the field of sleep have suggested that measures of daytime<br />

sleep<strong>in</strong>ess are a useful tool (<strong>in</strong> addition to measures of nocturnal sleep quality), <strong>and</strong> it<br />

has been proposed that measures of daytime sleep<strong>in</strong>ess may even be a more reliable<br />

<strong>in</strong>dicator of poor sleep quality (Lundh & Broman, 2000). For example, nocturnal sleep<br />

quality measures (such as the PSQI used with<strong>in</strong> this thesis) consider a sleep duration of<br />

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