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Night Shifts, Sleep, and Fibromyalgia

January 25, 2010 by Lisa


This was an email discussion I had with a reader. She gave me permission to post it.

Hi Lisa,
I just found your blog and wanted to say, out of all the research, reading, searching on the internet. Your blog has been a refreshing read for me. I hope you are a real person and this blog is truthful. I have had fibromyalgia for years and like you I have discovered some things that do seem to work. I know your fibro has been cured according to you but mine I’m still working on. I find that I have discovered some of the same remedies you have. I think mine lingers due to my schudule and lack of sleep I impose on myself. I work rotating shifts and work days, evenings and midnights. Due to the nature of my work I cannot control this. I have been told many times by doctors to get another job. But that is easier said than done. I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your experience and I’m glad I stumbled on to your blog.

I am a real person :) I worked shift work at one time too. I was a police dispatcher from March 1998 to August 2002. We worked a month of nights, then a month of days, then a month of evenings. It was really, really hard. I remember my first month on nights, I couldn’t sleep during the day and one day I just sat on the couch and cried because I just couldn’t sleep. I definitely credit the exhaustion and stress of that almost 5 years for kind of ‘bringing on the perfect circumstances’ for some sort of illness. Then, after my son was born, I even tried to go to school instead of just being a parent. …

So, these days, I go to sleep when I’m tired (or when I can finally get my son to sleep) and I sleep most days till I wake up naturally. So, guess how long I sleep most nights? 8.5 to 10.5 hours. That seems to be how much sleep I need … and i wonder how many people in this world need 10 hours of sleep, but think they should only need 8, or only allow themselves 8 because that’s supposed to be the magic number.

So, thanks for your email, I love that you have found some relief – I’d love to hear more of your story and how long it’s taking and what you are doing that’s working. … If that’s something you ever want to share.

I am trying 3 new things these days you might be interested in – raw food, 24 hour fasting, and apple cider vinegar. The Bragg books tout apple cider vinegar as an incredible healer, saying that it can clean out acid crystals from your joints and plaque from your arteries, and I read between the lines a little bit and extrapolate that it should be effective at clearing out stress chemicals and metabolic wastes from fascia, muscles, and connective tissue.

I definitely am still progressing, it’s just harder to recognize progress the weller I get .. because there’s just less progress to see, know what I mean? I feel I am totally cured from fibro, but I still have a tendency towards sore muscles and tiredness and emotional craziness when I overdo things or let myself get out of balance. As a matter of fact, I can actually feel my muscles get sore in this horrible parody of fibromyalgia whenever I get a certain kind of emotional reaction – it’s a kind of “angry, resentful, blameful .. .with an undercurrent of ‘i’m not good enough’ ” Luckily, instead of my muscles holding this forever, I can get it to go away within a few minutes or hours with emotional work. this is where my major work is right now. I do yoga, I try to improve my diet, and I work with my emotions and my beliefs.

I kind of feel like there will never be a time when I will say “that’s it, I’m done working on myself. I’m finally perfect. ” It’s like there was a point where I hit rock bottom and fibromyalgia was a part of that rock bottom and now for the rest of my life I’ll be working my way up from that rock bottom – and who knows how high I’ll climb. I thought I knew where the mountain top was, but now that I’ve gotten there, I see another, higher summit, and one past that, and one past that. …

:)

Thank you so much for replying to my email Lisa, yes you can use my email, I don’t mind at all. Thanks for the feedback. I have a bottle of Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar in my refrigerator right now. I’ve used it over the years and always seem to go back when things get really bad. For some reason I don’t follow any one protocol for a long period of time. I’ll get some relief and fall off the maintenance, when that’s something one should never do. Again thank you for your reply and I look forward to reading your book.

Filed under: Reversing Fibromyalgia, Thoughts and Emotions




Have you seen my book yet? I reversed Fibromyalgia in my own body. I think anyone can do it, no matter how long they've had Fibro or how severe their pain, fatigue, fibrofog, or tiredness. Click here to Start Your Journey Back to Wellness!

Comments

2 Comments on Night Shifts, Sleep, and Fibromyalgia

  1. Cinda Crawford on Tue, 26th Jan 2010 9:16 am

    2. Dear Lisa, It’s so great that you feel well and continue to encourage others. Either most people never get to that point -or- once they’re well, they never look back. I think the latter is because during the time period when they were so sick, their life was so horrible. They feel that life left them by the side of the road and they’re always struggling to catch up to the time they missed!

    But as you know, those feelings can be a big trap… that never feeling satisfied. I commend you in your effort to always take stock of where you are and striving to achieve better health without sacrificing what you currently have. This stuff is plain ole’ hard!

    My best, Cinda Crawford

  2. admin on Tue, 26th Jan 2010 2:07 pm

    3. Thank you Cinda, I appreciate your comment very much.

    Personally, I love, love, love the Internet and the fact that I can say whatever I want and there is a chance that something I say could help someone, or several someones.

    I love the fact that I can create a business out of doing something I enjoy so much.

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