ME patients often have sleep disturbances not seen in the healthy population. This includes non-24, where the sleep hours advance each day, and circadian reversal, which is more recognized with African Sleeping Sickness. I have a history of this worsening, until my non-24 was advancing by many hours a day, not just about one, and then my circadian rhythm shattered. Meanwhile it was found I had severe cataracts. So about a month ago I had cataract surgery on my right eye. The left eye is scheduled for next week. The pre-op eye surgeon meeting had over an hour of extra eye tests. I left feeling tired, and an hour after I got home I crashed. I expected the same from surgery, especially since I would be very sleep deprived. It did not happen. I was under heavy sedation and anaesthetic for some of it, and did not have to do anything but not move. The next morning I had my follow up eye surgeon appointment. That is where things got interesting. I took my dark glasses off, which we are told to wear, and the light outside was blue. Really blue. Sunlight is not supposed to be blue. When I got home I looked it up. Its called Cyanopsia, or blue sight. Its because cataracts block blue light more than other wavelengths, it takes awhile for the brain to adjust, and is now mostly gone some four weeks later. Its blue light that is most responsible for entraining circadian rhythms. After my eye surgery, and a couple of days, I started sleeping longer and more normally. Its highly likely that cataracts can worsen the kinds of sleep issues we have in ME. However its starting to wear off, and I wonder if this is connected to me being less sensitive to blue light in regular vision. I hope to post further notes a few weeks after my left eye cataract removal. My suggestion for anyone who is actually losing their circadian rhythm, or its advancing rapidly, is to get your eyes tested. Cataracts can contribute to this, but I have no idea how common this is in ME.
Interesting. My sleep schedule doesn't shift (so far) and my cataracts aren't "ripe enough" yet, but I'll keep that in mind in case my sleep does start shifting. That knowledge could be important for some people who don't quite qualify for cataract surgery yet for normal reasons, but could justify it if they're having that sleep problem.
My sleep at times does shift even sometimes achieving complete reversal of day and night, usually when I am in a relapse, however this has been the case for over thirty years and if I had cataracts it would not only have been picked up on but also it is likely I would now be blind. Obviously me as a counter example does not exclude cataracts being a factor for some people in their sleep disturbances, as they could still for some be a sufficient cause or contributory factor in ME sleep disturbances, but I do demonstrate that they are not a necessary cause of our sleep disturbances.
This was my baseline, I think, until the cataracts probably developed. Then it got much worse. After some years it stabilized as I no longer had any circadian rhythm, sleeping at random times and for random amounts, but never more than a few hours (often 3, sometimes 2 or 5) awake or asleep. In my opinion the underlying sleep issues are part of ME, but cataracts feed into that and make it worse. I really doubt cataracts do this in most people, though I could be wrong.
