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Researchers discover ‘sleep system’ appropriately responsive in patients with fibromyalgia
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Patients with fibromyalgia experienced similar increases in sleepiness as those with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy controls when sleep time was reduced to 4 hours. Patients additionally experienced recovery in night sleep efficiency, suggesting the functionality of homeostatic sleep patterns in these patients, according to recent study findings.
It is known that patients with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) experience sleep disturbances and daytime sleepiness, according to background information provided in the study.
“We aimed to test the sensitivity of the sleep system by partially depriving sleep and found that patients with fibromyalgia responded as well as healthy volunteers, concluding that their sleep system is appropriately responsive,” Tim Roehrs, PhD, senior biomedical scientist at HFHS sleep Disorders Center and professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University, told Healio.com/Rheumatology. “This is less easy than it sounds as we are not clear as to why the arousal system is hyperactive in fibromyalgia.
The study included 50 women, of which 18 had fibromyalgia, 16 had RA and 16 were healthy controls. At baseline, all participants had 8-hours of time in bed and underwent a Multiple Sleep Latency Test the next day. Between 3 and 7 days after the first test, bedtime was reduced by 4 hours and women underwent a second sleep test followed by an 8-hour time in bed recovery night.
The researchers observed reductions relative to baseline levels in the Multiple Sleep Latency Test by 4.3 minutes in patients with fibromyalgia compared with 3.1 minutes among the rheumatoid arthritis arm and 4.8 minutes for healthy controls.
Moreover, patients with fibromyalgia experienced increased sleep efficiency levels relative to baseline levels on the recovery night by 9.2% compared with a 13.3% increase among those with RA and 7.6% among healthy controls.
Although patients with fibromyalgia experienced REM rebound while those with RA and healthy controls did not, no differences were observed in recovery night sleep stages between the three arms, according to study results.
“At this point, researchers are continuing to look at various drugs that act on the arousal system with some success in improving the pain and sleep of fibromyalgia,” Roehrs said.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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