Chronic fatigue syndrome and sleep disorders: clinical associations and diagnostic difficulties

Effects of Fatigue and Grit on Club Sports Coaches

The objective of this research is to identify the level of general fatigue (FG), physical fatigue (FF) and concentration/motivation (C/M) in sports coaches. Two components of grit, consistency of interest (CI) and perseverance in effort (PE), are also assessed. The possible effects of sex, age, marital status, employment contract, work dedication and grit on FG, FF and C/M in sports coaches are examined. This cross-sectional study analyses 335 sports club coaches (21.2% women, 78.8% male) with a mean age of 29.88 (SD = 9.97) years, at a significance level of p < 0.05 for all analyses. Different aspects of fatigue were determined using the Spanish translation of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory-20 (IMF-20). The Grit-S scale was used to measure the ability to persevere, have passion and commit. The results indicated that men scored higher in FF, C/M and PE, while women obtained higher values in FG and CI. Non-contract coaches had higher FG, CI and PE, while coaches with contracts scored higher on C/M and FF. In conclusion, coaches with higher CI had higher FG, and high levels of PE were associated with low FG levels.

Poor self-reported sleep quality and health-related quality of life in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis

Non-restorative sleep is a hallmark symptom of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis. However, little is known about self-reported sleep disturbances in these subjects. This study aimed to assess the self-reported sleep quality and its impact on quality of life in a Spanish community-based chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis cohort. A prospective cross-sectional cohort study was conducted in 1,455 Spanish chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis patients. Sleep quality, fatigue, pain, functional capacity impairment, psychopathological status, anxiety/depression and health-related quality of life were assessed using validated subjective measures. The frequencies of muscular, cognitive, neurological, autonomic and immunological symptom clusters were above 80%. High scores were recorded for pain, fatigue, psychopathological status, anxiety/depression, and low scores for functional capacity and quality of life, all of which correlated significantly (all p < 0.01) with quality of sleep as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Multivariate regression analysis showed that after adjusting for age and gender, the pain intensity (odds ratio, 1.11; p <0.05), psychopathological status (odds ratio, 1.85; p < 0.001), fibromyalgia (odds ratio, 1.39; p < 0.05), severe autonomic dysfunction (odds ratio, 1.72; p < 0.05), poor functional capacity (odds ratio, 0.98; p < 0.05) and quality of life (odds ratio, 0.96; both p < 0.001) were significantly associated with poor sleep quality. These findings suggest that this large chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis sample presents poor sleep quality, as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and that this poor sleep quality is associated with many aspects of quality of life.