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Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
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Yes I've been looking at mine and my deep sleep is lower than average and rem higher than average (judging by the benchmark on Fitbit) my deep sleep is regularly below an hour and hasn't got above an hour and a half despot my average sleep being over 7 hrs.Does anyone who uses an activity/sleep tracker find that they are in REM for around 50% of their sleep I've read that REM is high in small children but it reduces with age and an hour a night is sufficient. I'm getting a lot more than that and in my 50s. Also since I've started using the tracker my deep sleep has only ever been as high as 1h 40 mins usually an hour or less. I'm wondering whether to raise this with my GP. I've tried stopping my low doses of amitriptyline and pregabalinto see if that makes a difference but it didn't. although I've decided they weren't helping and contributing to morning sluggishness so I've stopped taking them. I'm just taking paracetamol for pain as well as turmeric and magnesium. I want to give melatonin a try as my problem is around getting to sleep.
Yes doubtful this will cause any interest with my gp either. I saw on the news just now that they are doing some big sleep study in Canada so I guess it's something that is poorly understood in terms of proper long term scientific studies.thanks AWNTY good knowing someone else has similar sleep tracking results it would be good if we could find out more about what it means but I dont expect to get any help with that anytime soon from my gp
That was my thought as well. I wonder whether it's like PEM ....in that after a particularly bad sleep with lots of rem and not much deep sleep you get a delayed reaction 48 hrs later? its certainly showing a high variation in the quality of sleep over time. I wonder where fitbit gets their benchmark data from?Yes it seems to vary inexplicably from one night to the next other than if I've been more active I tend to struggle to even more to get to sleep. It doesn't seem to be predictable that if I sleep longer I get more deep sleep. I do get more REM from sleeping longer. I always feel rough in the morning. A bit less so since I've cut out my low dose Amitryptyline and Pregabalin. i read somewhere that REM uses up a lot of energy and during deep sleep body does its physical repairs so I can see that ties up with ME symptoms & sleep is unrefreshing.
Does anyone who uses an activity/sleep tracker find that they are in REM for around 50% of their sleep I've read that REM is high in small children but it reduces with age and an hour a night is sufficient. I'm getting a lot more than that and in my 50s. Also since I've started using the tracker my deep sleep has only ever been as high as 1h 40 mins usually an hour or less. I'm wondering whether to raise this with my GP. I've tried stopping my low doses of amitriptyline and pregabalinto see if that makes a difference but it didn't. although I've decided they weren't helping and contributing to morning sluggishness so I've stopped taking them. I'm just taking paracetamol for pain as well as turmeric and magnesium. I want to give melatonin a try as my problem is around getting to sleep.
I find it hard to believe that you are actually having that much REM sleep (unless you are sleeping very very little). Drugs like amitriptyline and pregabalin would be expected to decrease the amount of REM sleep you have. The sleep trackers detection of REM is probably based on changes in your heart rate, which is a pretty poor way to identify REM sleep. To really know if you are in REM would require monitoring your muscle tone, brain waves, and eye movements.
Having little "deep sleep" is highly likely, however. Stage 3 and 4 sleep is reduced in ME/CFS and fibromyalgia. You can look into "alpha intrusion" to learn more.
Melatonin works pretty well, in my experience, and is quite safe.
If you want to know what's really happening with your sleep, you need a real sleep study. This can be done at home now with a portable device. Perhaps your doctor can order a home sleep study for you?
I'm not sure the NHS would do this but I could always ask. Following your advice I read up a bit on alpha wave intrusion, seems it's our old friends cytokines reducing gaba....or I think this is what the article below said.I find it hard to believe that you are actually having that much REM sleep (unless you are sleeping very very little). Drugs like amitriptyline and pregabalin would be expected to decrease the amount of REM sleep you have. The sleep trackers detection of REM is probably based on changes in your heart rate, which is a pretty poor way to identify REM sleep. To really know if you are in REM would require monitoring your muscle tone, brain waves, and eye movements.
Having little "deep sleep" is highly likely, however. Stage 3 and 4 sleep is reduced in ME/CFS and fibromyalgia. You can look into "alpha intrusion" to learn more.
Melatonin works pretty well, in my experience, and is quite safe.
If you want to know what's really happening with your sleep, you need a real sleep study. This can be done at home now with a portable device. Perhaps your doctor can order a home sleep study for you?
Home sleep studies test for apnea, but I'm not aware of home studies that provide EEG data or electrodes to test for restless legs. I think you would need those components to get the most thorough look at your sleep quality.
There was one company in Austin that worked with local sleep doctors and would come to your home and hook you up for all the testing of a traditional lab sleep study, but I think they are out of business. I doubt this is a common service.