Why does CRPS make you tired?

CRPS can cause fatigue for several reasons, including –

• An unbalanced autonomic nervous system
• Inflammation of the body
• A weakened immune system (in response to extreme pain)
• Constant severe pain affecting quality and quantity of sleep (not to mention many patients report experiencing increased CRPS pain at night)
• Insomnia
• Waking up frequently
• Difficulty falling asleep
• Sleep disruption
• High levels of stress and anxiety
• Lack of physical activity (due to the debilitating pain and nature of the condition)
• Sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome

Sleep, a distant memory

Besides the constant pain, sleeping problems are probably one of the most annoying and life-robbing symptoms CRPS patients suffer from.

Sleeping serves a very important function. While you are sleeping, your nervous system has much more energy available for healing. There are many reasons for this. During this time, you are not thinking. Thinking invariably evokes emotions, which requires some of your available energy to be spent. Your senses are, for the most part, shut down. You are not hearing, seeing, or smelling. You are not using your large muscle groups to move around. All the energy normally used on these functions can now be redirected and used to assist your body in the healing process.

However, if you are sleep-deprived, your body is missing out on this golden opportunity. It is estimated that your body heals about three times faster while asleep. It is a cruel twist of fate that the patients who need this most are the very patients who can’t sleep.

Sleep problems with CRPS include insomnia or difficulty falling asleep as well as waking up frequently. An even more common problem is frequently waking up even though you don’t remember doing so the next day, which interrupts your “deep” sleep. Also, other sleep disorders, such as restless leg syndrome and sleep apnea, may be associated with CRPS. Add to this the constant, tearing pain, which prevents deep restful sleep in itself.

My patients suffering from CRPS tell me that they wake up day after day feeling exhausted with no energy.

Usually, people who suffer from CRPS feel more tired in the morning and many go back to sleep during the day to attempt to alleviate their fatigue. Also, it’s common for people with CRPS to have great difficulty focusing during the day, a symptom made worse by the brain fog a lot of them already suffer from.

While brain fog is often attributed to sleep deprivation, it is my belief that brain fog is not caused by insomnia, but rather made worse by it. The involvement of the cranial nerves, together with severe inflammation affecting the brain, are much likelier culprits.

While almost every CRPS patient under allopathic care is prescribed some form of sleep medication, these medications only treat the symptom of sleeplessness, and often poorly. If you want to restore deep sleep, it is crucial that the malfunctioning autonomic nervous system be balanced. Remember, your parasympathetic nervous system is not working correctly, and the parasympathetic nervous system controls your rest. To make matters worse, the less you sleep, the more severe your pain, which, in turn, leads to even poorer sleep.

If you have CRPS, Don't Give Up Hope

Know that there is hope for you regardless of how long you have had CRPS or what you have tried before.

When the nervous system is given the tools that it needs to achieve a state of balance (and keep the box locked), signs and symptoms tend to resolve.

We have had many CRPS patients go from having very aggressive symptoms to being completely asymptomatic. Your body is amazing and capable of healing!

Start your journey in healing today

If you or a loved one is in chronic neurologic pain, call us for free at (479) 279-7742 or start your patient journey by filling out the form on the Get Started page to get more information about the Spero Clinic’s neurologic rehabilitation program.