Aerenhouts, Dirk, Ickmans, Kelly, Clarys, Peter et al. · Disability and rehabilitation · 2015 · DOI
This study looked at how sleep problems and low activity levels are connected in people with ME/CFS. Researchers measured fitness capacity, sleep patterns, and daily activity in 42 women with ME/CFS and compared them to 24 healthy inactive women. People with ME/CFS slept more, spent more time in bed, had difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, and were less physically active than the control group.
Understanding the relationship between sleep disturbance, low physical activity, and reduced fitness capacity in ME/CFS can guide safer rehabilitation strategies. This study provides objective evidence that modest increases in activity might improve sleep quality, though careful monitoring is essential—a finding relevant to ongoing debate about activity pacing and graded exercise in ME/CFS.
This study cannot establish causation: it does not prove that low activity causes poor sleep, or vice versa—only that they correlate. The study involved only inactive female controls, so findings may not generalize to active controls or males. The cross-sectional design (measurements taken at one time point) cannot determine whether activity changes would sustainably improve sleep without exacerbating fatigue.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Aerenhouts, Dirk, Ickmans, Kelly, Clarys, Peter, Zinzen, Evert, Meersdom, Geert, Lambrecht, Luc, et al. (2015). Sleep characteristics, exercise capacity and physical activity in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.. Disability and rehabilitation. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2014.993093
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-aerenhouts-2015-sleep-characteristics,
author = {Aerenhouts, Dirk and Ickmans, Kelly and Clarys, Peter and Zinzen, Evert and Meersdom, Geert and Lambrecht, Luc and Nijs, Jo},
title = {Sleep characteristics, exercise capacity and physical activity in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Disability and rehabilitation},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.3109/09638288.2014.993093},
note = {PubMed: 25512240},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/aerenhouts-2015-sleep-characteristics},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/aerenhouts-2015-sleep-characteristics
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