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How does sleep affect your MG?
Many people with MG search for answers about sleep and symptom flares, especially when a bad night leads to a rough day. Sleep quality can be a major internal trigger, and even small disruptions can make MG symptoms more noticeable.
For me, poor sleep shows up quickly. My muscles fatigue faster, my voice weakens sooner, and my overall energy feels lower. I’ve learned to protect my sleep as much as I can — not perfectly, but intentionally.
Some things that help me include:
- Keeping a consistent bedtime
- Limiting evening screen time
- Creating a cooler sleep environment
- Building in extra rest after a bad night
How does sleep affect your MG? Have you noticed a clear connection between rest and symptom severity?
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6 Replies
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I find poor sleep definitely affects my symptoms. I was diagnosed last year, learning curve is a lot. I’ve always done poorly with lack of sleep, but with GMG find that it is super important to get enough sleep. For me, I do best with 9+ hours of sleep. Retired, so that is possible.
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Agreed. I find I need 9-11 hours of sleep. I also have a wacky circadian rhythm. I could be awake for 12 hours or 36. And then I crash, sometimes sleeping 14+ hours. It’s insane.
My MG definitely does better when I am able to be on a “regular” schedule and get at least 9 hours of sleep.
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I have to take it really easy the day after a night of little sleep so I recover in a day or two. Yesterday was one of those days so I caught up on computer and sitting tasks, and watched a few TV shows. I also rescheduled my personal training session. I’m fortunate that my trainer doesn’t charge me for less than 24hrs notice.
Although I try to follow sleep hygiene recommendations like a consistent bedtime, my heightened awareness of fatigue because of MG means there are no hard and fast rules. I find I have to get to bed as soon as I start to feel end of day fatigue whether that’s at 9pm or 10:30pm. I can’t take too long getting ready for bed because if the feeling of fatigue passes, I’ll be up most of the night. I won’t be tired enough to fall asleep sometimes for 5 or 6 hrs. Having a snack like toast with nut butter occasionally helps.
I’m retired so I have some flexibility to sleep in if I need to but I can usually only do that after several nights of less sleep. I rarely nap but if I do, it doesn’t appear to impact my ability to sleep that night.
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I don’t think I’ve had a good night sleep since I was diagnosed in November 2022. My neurologist took me off my two sleep aids that worked very well and I’m left with trazodone which allows me to go to sleep and the melatonin which helps me fall asleep. They help, but not enough to get the 8, 9, 10 Hours of sleep, some of you speak about. I can’t remember the last time I got more than seven hours of sleep. I recently purchased an Oura ring that has a very good sleep monitor included. I discovered that for the last week I have averaged between four and six hours sleep a night. As a result I generally have double vision most of the day, slurring a lot of the day and fatigue almost all day. But since diagnoses, the few times I did get seven hours or so of sleep, not only did I feel so much better, but I was able to go a day plus without double vision, slurring or spending most of the day resting. For me sleep is my absent friend who helps tremendously when it’s present and weakens me when it isn’t. Generally, I think it has abandoned me.
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I’ve found that my symptoms of gMG are under control or minimized when I get 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night. However, I couldn’t get my sleep unless I have my CPAP machine. I’ve found that breathing at night is imperative to get deep restful sleep. About 4 months ago my Pulmonologist did a sleep study to check my blood oxygen during sleep overnight. One discovery was that despite having CPAP my blood oxygen level dropped to low 80’s so the doctor recommended that I have 2 liters of oxygen fed into my CPAP machine at bedtime until I wake up. I must say the addition of oxygen to my CPAP was a real game changer. It improved my sleep greatly.
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My biggest issue is often times within an hour of getting, I must good back to bed because fatigue starts setting quickly and my eye lids start falling and making it difficult to see.
Did I mention that I’m having so much fun with gMG.
Thank you,
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