Kishi, Akifumi, Natelson, Benjamin H, Togo, Fumiharu et al. · Sleep · 2011 · DOI
This study looked at sleep patterns in women with ME/CFS, comparing those with ME/CFS alone to those who also have fibromyalgia (FM). Researchers found that people with ME/CFS alone had trouble staying asleep and waking up too often from REM sleep, while those with both conditions showed different sleep problems including difficulty maintaining deeper sleep stages. These findings suggest that ME/CFS and fibromyalgia may involve different types of sleep disturbances.
Understanding whether ME/CFS and fibromyalgia involve different sleep disturbance mechanisms could lead to more targeted diagnostic approaches and individualized treatment strategies. This research provides objective neurophysiological data supporting clinical observations that overlap between these conditions may mask distinct underlying sleep pathologies.
This study does not prove that sleep abnormalities cause ME/CFS or fibromyalgia symptoms, only that different patterns exist. The findings are limited to women and cannot be generalized to men with these conditions. The study cannot explain why these sleep dynamics occur or whether correcting them would improve overall illness severity.
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
Kishi, Akifumi, Natelson, Benjamin H, Togo, Fumiharu, Struzik, Zbigniew R, Rapoport, David M, & Yamamoto, Yoshiharu (2011). Sleep-stage dynamics in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome with or without fibromyalgia.. Sleep. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.1396
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-kishi-2011-sleep-stage,
author = {Kishi, Akifumi and Natelson, Benjamin H and Togo, Fumiharu and Struzik, Zbigniew R and Rapoport, David M and Yamamoto, Yoshiharu},
title = {Sleep-stage dynamics in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome with or without fibromyalgia.},
journal = {Sleep},
year = {2011},
doi = {10.5665/sleep.1396},
note = {PubMed: 22043126},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kishi-2011-sleep-stage},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kishi-2011-sleep-stage
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