Does your ME cause sleep inversion?

I was aware of the problem with diphenhydramine. I had really severe sleeping problems a few years ago and took the maximum dose of the stuff every night for several months. Eventually I got all sorts of new health problems developing that I traced to the diphenhydramine and I stopped taking them. The only symptoms I remember after all this time were the most violent restless leg symptoms I've ever had, and a conviction that I was developing galloping dementia.

 

Hydroxyzine gives me immediate brain zaps!

 

I’m intrigued now. What’s a brain zap?

 

My scalp gets electric shock feelings and I have to shake my head and blink so I can focus on what's happening.

 

If a lot of ME patients do have abnormal sleep patterns (I certainly do), I wonder how that might have affected all those studies on "morning cortisol" that they used to love to do on ME patients. It's probably not very sensible to test the "morning cortisol' level of people who would normally be waking up at, say, noon.

I went for a sleep test once. I was wide awake for six hours, slept for two (only after finally having to ask for a sleeping pill - which kind of shows how poorly I was being monitored).