My baseline is 5-6 most days. That’s just Tuesday. What’s been different the last four months is the 3am thing, which has been consistent enough that I’ve started logging it separately. It doesn’t feel like daytime pain. Daytime is dull and constant, the kind I can pace around and mostly manage. 3am is something else - sharper, more electric, hits the tender points on my hips and shoulders in a way that sits me upright. I can’t pace through it. I just wait it out. I’ve been logging these wake-ups alongside my flares bc I wanted to know if interrupted sleep is causing flares or if the wake-ups are already part of one. What the data shows: nights where I’m awake at 3am for 45 minutes or longer, I’m at a 7 or 8 two days later. Not the next morning. Two days out. Which fits the lag pattern I’ve found w/ other triggers. Fibromyalgia cause-and-effect doesn’t seem to land the next morning for me, it lands 36-48 hours out. Something Sunday or Monday hits me Wednesday. But here’s what I can’t untangle: is the broken sleep itself the stressor that starts the flare, or is the 3am pain a sign something’s already in motion, and the 7 two days later is just the same event finishing? If it’s the first, I should be doing everything possible to get back to sleep fast. If it’s the second, the wake-up is just an early readout and the flare is already decided. I’m bringing this to my pain clinic appointment but I don’t know yet what I’m actually asking. fwiw Anyone else tracking sleep disruptions and flares? Do you think the 3am wake-up is cause or early warning?
Fresh off my own sleep disruption struggles, i’m wondering if the 3am wake-up is really an early warning or just a symptom of something already in motion. you said “nights where i’m awake at 3am for 45 minutes or longer, i’m at a 7 or 8 two days later” which makes me think about my own tracking in careclinic, where i can see how sleep affects my anxiety levels, but i’m not convinced the wake-up itself is the trigger.
Sleep patterns can be so revealing, and i’m intrigued by your observation that the 3am pain is “sharper, more electric” - it’s as if your body is sending a distinct signal at that hour, separate from the daytime pain. When you say “the flare is already decided” two days out, it makes me wonder if there’s a hormonal component at play, perhaps related to the natural cortisol dip that occurs around 3am, but that’s a question for your pain clinic appointment, i suppose.