THEY JUST KEEP COMING

I didn't sleep at all last night. 

At 5:00 a.m. I looked at the clock one last time and put a pillow over my head and closed my eyes. 

It didn't work.

I finally got up at 8:00 made some tea and turned on CNBC to see what the stock market was doing. I find it fascinating that these people are clueless as to the reason the job numbers are off. There's a rhythm to all things and the stock market is no different.

Circadian Rhythm

The human body has a circadian rhythm or internal body clock. My body clock has always worked best with a wake time between 8:30 and 10:00 and a sleep time between 1:00 and 2:00. What is amazing about body rhythms are the patterns of core body temperature, hormone production and cell regeneration and it's related to the light and dark cycles. Melatonin, which is absent during daylight hours starts production when the light becomes dim and the body winds down for sleep.This not only applies to human beings but to mammals, plants and all living things. Pretty neat, huh?

Alpha Wave Intrusion

One of the markers of Fibromyalgia is sleep disturbances. My particular issue is alpha wave intrusion. It's an intrusive brain wave pattern that interferes with deep sleep. Basically the alpha waves occur when the brain is fully awake. So these "awake" waves intrude into the sleep cycle. One of the problems in Fibromyalgia is that it isn't just a matter of a reduced deep sleep and increased non-REM sleep. The deep levels of sleep that eventually are reached don't last long enough to renew and refresh the body. The body doesn't get a chance to heal itself and when you do wake up you don't feel as if you slept; you're still tired and in pain. The severity of the pain that you feel during the day seems to correlate with the amount of sleep that you've gotten.

It's been a doozy of a day as far as pain is concerned.

There appears to be a correlation between pro-inflammatory cytokines and pain intensity.  These are immune cells that are activated in response to an injury, infection or inflammation in the body.  The bodies signaling of the activation of these cells may link trauma and infection to the chronic pain that plagues Fibromyalgia sufferers.

So as the storm approaches I know that the pain is on the upswing. I again promise myself that I won't wait until the last minute to take the medication so that I can get some pain relief. 

Can I sleep?

Only time will tell.

I can't wind my body clock, my rhythms are off and those lovely little cytokines are working overtime. 

Well, at least something is working.


I'm going to go chug some melatonin.