It’s called unrefreshing or non-restorative sleep.
What Is Unrefreshing Sleep?
The consequences of unrefreshing sleep go beyond mere tiredness.
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They include:
Why Is Sleep Unrefreshing in ME/CFS?
When the sympathetic nervous system is activated, it puts you into fight-or-flight mode.
Conversely, parasympathetic activation is referred to as a rest-and-digest mode.
To date, no drug has been FDA-approved for treating this disease.
Others say supplements have helped them sleep better.
Unfortunately, we have little-to-no quality research showing whether these treatments actually improve unrefreshing sleep in ME/CFS.
ME/CFS is believed to be similar tofibromyalgia, a condition that also involves unrefreshing sleep.
The three drugs that are FDA-approved for treating fibromyalgia have all been shown to improve sleep in that condition.
They areLyrica (pregabalin), Cymbalta (duloxetine), and Savella (milnacipran).
So far, only duloxetine has been studied for ME/CFS.
If your ME/CFS involves pain, proper pain management may also help improve your sleep quality.
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