More efficient sleep may benefit patients with fibromyalgia, insomnia

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Study results indicate that better sleep efficiency in patients with fibromyalgia and insomnia may help improve their pain-related disability, according to a poster presented at the SLEEP meeting.

Because the role of sleep in pain-related disability and processing is unknown, Neetu Nair, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Mizzou Sleep Research Lab at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, and colleagues sought to determine whether sleep moderates the association between the brain and its reaction to painful stimuli and pain-related disability in patients with fibromyalgia and insomnia (FMI), Nair told Healio.

Twenty-nine adult patients with FMI wore an activity monitor for 2 weeks, completed the Pain Disability Index (PDI) and underwent fMRI with a quantitative sensory testing protocol using thermal stimuli, according to the study. Variables included 12 brain regions with significant activation changes and PDI score. Moderators included actigraphic sleep variables (or sleep onset latency), total sleep time and sleep efficiency.

Researchers found that sleep efficiency moderated the relationship between right cingulate gyrus (rCG) activity and PDI score. At lower levels of sleep efficiency, they saw a negative association between rCG activity and PDI score. At the highest levels of sleep onset latency, PDI and rCG exhibited negative associations. Finally, at the highest levels of total sleep time, PDI and right frontal gyrus activity showed positive associations.

Nair told Healio, “The results point toward the possibility that more than longer sleep time, targeting greater sleep efficiency in patients with fibromyalgia and insomnia may be beneficial in improving pain-related disability.”