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

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comprehensive measures to look at the constructs under <strong>in</strong>vestigation <strong>in</strong> more detail<br />

(Scheuermann, 2008).<br />

Implications for Practice<br />

Due to the extremely high prevalence of sleep difficulties <strong>in</strong> FMS <strong>and</strong> the identified<br />

l<strong>in</strong>ks between sleep <strong>and</strong> pa<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> fatigue, <strong>in</strong>terventions designed to improve sleep may<br />

lead to improvements <strong>in</strong> not only sleep quality, but also quality of life <strong>and</strong> reduction <strong>in</strong><br />

medication use for participants with FMS.<br />

This thesis has extended the current knowledge base by explor<strong>in</strong>g the components of<br />

sleep quality <strong>and</strong> highlight<strong>in</strong>g that sleep ma<strong>in</strong>tenance, rather than sleep onset<br />

difficulties, are most problematic for people with FMS. In addition, a number of factors<br />

were shown to be <strong>in</strong>fluential to sleep quality (<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g negative affect, beliefs about<br />

sleep, stress, worry <strong>and</strong> high levels of cognitive arousal) <strong>and</strong> these need to be addressed<br />

<strong>in</strong> targeted <strong>in</strong>terventions to facilitate sleep quality. There is currently contrast<strong>in</strong>g<br />

op<strong>in</strong>ions about whether sleep difficulties <strong>in</strong> patient populations should be treated as part<br />

of the illness or as a separate entity (Mahowald & Mahowald, 2000; Watts et al., 1994).<br />

As sleep <strong>and</strong> other symptoms of the condition were found to be highly <strong>in</strong>terl<strong>in</strong>ked<br />

with<strong>in</strong> this thesis, this supports the notion that sleep <strong>in</strong>terventions should be an <strong>in</strong>tegral<br />

component of <strong>in</strong>terventions for people with FMS.<br />

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