N:rem Sleep System - My Sleep Aid Trial Review

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT A "PAID FOR" REVIEW. The thoughts and experiences outlined in this product review are an accurate and genuine reflection of my experience using the N:rem Sleep System and have not been influenced in any way.

Like many sufferers of fibromyalgia I haven't had a really good night's sleep for many, many years. Even before I was diagnosed my fitful sleep would annoy my wife and keep her awake - which resulted in lots of odd bruises on my shins and arms! My wife described sleeping with me as "like sleeping with someone in the throes of a never ending epilectic seizure!"

It got so bad that most nights saw me banished to the spare bed where I could thrash and gurgle and snore and talk and shout and kick and moan to my hearts content. But of course I wasn't content and sleeping like that certainly took it's toll on my health and my marriage.

In the early days it was simply a matter of me being unaware of what I did in my sleep - I don't remember doing any of the things my wife told me I did -  but I do remember how incredibly tired I was, even after a full night's sleep - which for me meant about five or six hours, max. More recently it hasn't simply been the things I do in my sleep, I've had the extra burden of chronic pain keeping me from getting to sleep or waking me during the night, all of which adds up to a whole mess of exhaustion and irritability and stress - and with the stress comes the added pleasure of anxiety at bedtime - 'Will I get to sleep?' 'What if my pain wakes me again?' and so on. It's a vicious cycle.

Living with a chronic pain condition is bad enough in itself. Getting through the days is exhausting and when the nights offer no respite from the pain it's easily understandable how some fibromyalgia 'victims' become depressed to the point of almost being suicidal.

Over the years I have tried so many different sleep aid products - none of which have ever worked. From large quantities of alcohol to anti-snoring strips to specialist pillows and mattresses, I've spent a fortune trying, and failing, to get a good night's sleep.

So when I received an email via the FibroMen website from a company asking me to trial  their 'Sleep System' I was sceptical to say the least, but I've tried almost everything else on the market, so why not give their 'free trial' a go?

The very next day my trial product arrived at my door! A big black box stuffed with five single bed width foam 'toppers' of different densities and colours  (2 x super soft and 1 each of soft, medium and firm ) designed to be placed on top of my existing mattress in a configuration suited to my particular conditions - hip pain and lower back pain.
 
And so began my ten day trial of the product that claimed to provide sound, restorative, deep sleep to chronic pain sufferers like me.

Setting the bed up was really easy - even for me - simply place the colour coded, different densities of foam tablet down the length of your bed in the configuration best suited to your pain areas. The leaflet that came with the product provided three options for back pain, lower back pain and hip pain. For my first night I used the lower back pain configuration.

The first night provided me with a decent night's sleep (for me) only waking twice but with some discomfort from my hip pain - the tablet 'toppers' were configured for lower back pain so I suppose that was to be expected and quite normal for me. I did get a feel of the differing densities of foam but overall it was a good night's sleep. The next day I found myself moving around quite freely - feeling almost sprightly. The third night provided me with the most comfortable night's sleep I'd had for many years and left me really positive, but I changed the configuration of the tablets to one designed to help with hip pain for night four and it wasn't a good move - I woke several times with severe lower back pain and (surprisingly!) some pain in my hip and that left me quite despondent. For night five I switched to the configuration for general back pain and it's been that way since - for a reason:

For me the configuration for general back pain has provided me with the best sleep I've had in years!

I still have pain during the day. This sleep system is not a cure for fibromyalgia - but it doesn't claim to be. This sleep system has worked for me in two ways

1. I no longer wake during the night in absolute agony, and
2. I no longer wake during the night FULL STOP!

I can go to bed at midnight and not wake up until my alarm clock goes off six, seven, eight - even nine hours later - I've NEVER been able to do that.

I can go to bed in absolute agony and still fall asleep quite quickly - because the mattress is now so comfortable - and not wake once during the night because of my pain.

When I wake my pain is still there but I don't notice it so much as it's not as bad as it has been in the morning, and getting out of bed is no longer the arduous task it was two weeks ago. As I go through each day I feel my pain building to the point it was at before the trial but I feel so much more able to bear with it knowing that when I go to bed I'm going to get some respite from it.

The absolute beauty of this sleep system is the fact that you can configure the foam tablets in whatever way gives you most comfort and relief. I had a couple of nights where I got it wrong, but it was easily fixed the next day and I know that if the current layout stops working I can have a go at shuffling the tablets to find the right comfort level for me. Quite simply it's brilliant!

So, overall, the sleep system has worked for me and I'm so thankful that Elise from N:rem - the company behind the system - contacted me.

I do have one note of caution to those thinking of investing in the system - and it is an investment because the system doesn't come cheaply - use the free trial first. 

What works for one doesn't necessarily work for another - we all know this to be a fact with fibromyalgia! If you use the trial and find it helps you then, if you can afford to, buy the system. From my experience with the company, and from reading the reviews on their site (and other review sites) their customer service is first class and there are options to enable you to afford the full system if you're on a limited budget. Take a look at their site and decide for yourself, but I have no hesitation, based on my trial, in recommending the benefits of the N:rem Sleep System. 

Your Stories - Paul in Southampton, UK

In two weeks a milestone will have been achieved. On 2nd July it will not only be my 43rd Birthday but also the 1 year anniversary of the last day I was able to work. It is something I'm not proud of at all and to be honest I had no idea it would have affected me this much.

I started to become unwell in January 2014. It started with a headache which progressively got worse and never went away. The headache affected my vision and I had an adverse reaction to bright lights. Then I noticed my knees were painful. Again the pain increased much like the headaches.

After several attempts to get help from my GP who was dismissive I sought a 2nd opinion and saw a different GP, who after the initial examination introduced me to the world of Fibromyalgia. It was only because of her belief in me and the symptoms tests were done to exclude other health issues and eventually I saw a Rheumatologist who diagnosed ME in August 2014.

Luckily for me the GP had started treating me for ME or Fibromyalgia on the first day I saw her. Various medications were tried, tested and rejected because of adverse side effects.

While this was all going on I was still working full time. I had 3 weeks off in May as the pain was just too much. From that point on, work became a place of disharmony. My Directors and Store Manager made life very difficult, even to the point where they suggested I resign and re-apply for a part time job!!!

Before being ill my career was progressing very well and I had the full backing and support of my Directors and Store Manager in evolving my career into a Regional Training Manager. Sadly that support stopped the day I returned to work after having 3 weeks off sick.

Dealing with a massive change in life is hard enough, to have no support from your employer and in fact for them to make life even harder was really tough to handle. Life became a battle, not only to get the best help I could while dealing with a horrible illness, but also to stand up for my employment rights against a Global company who refused any help from HR and who rejected any form of communication was devastating. Despite many attempts from me to try and find common ground their only answer and direction they wanted to go in was the end of my employment with them.

It still plays on my mind from time to time and this 1st year anniversary has stirred it up again.

In November 2014 I started stuttering and losing my words, by mid January it was all I could do to string a few words together. My GP and consultant were both concerned and started talking about a stroke!!! I was horrified, I didn’t feel like I had a stroke, but what would that feel like?

In March 2015 after playing around with the medication and all the ups and downs that go along with it my GP and Consultant eventually decided to stop the Gaberpentine. I was reluctant as I had been on it since May 2014 and it was the only medication I felt provided benefit. By this time I would have been on Gaberpentine for almost a year. I started to reduce it day by day and once I was clear of it my speech returned very quickly.

I had been on a concoction of over 30 tablets a day plus a 52.5mcg per hour morphine patch and nothing was helping.

After the success of coming off the Gaberpentine and not only my speech returning, but also my concentration and memory improved. I, with the consent of my GP, reduced all my other medication and stopped most of it all together. It was so liberating. YES, the pain increased, but I was me again. I started to laugh and smile. As the effects of the pain killers left me I became more and more like my old self. Clarity was returning to my life. With the help of my GP and consultant I was only on paracetamol and a Morphine patch. I had stopped all the sleeping tablets and started to sleep when my body told me to, this was against the instructions of my GP, but I made a conscientious decision to listen to my body.

My sleep pattern is all over the place. I have a few hours sleep from 11pm onwards and then up again approximately 2am until 6 or 7am and then sleep again for a few more hours until about 10am. It works for me and I feel so much happier for it.

In late May2015 I made myself a promise that I would never return to the zombie who was moody, unresponsive almost synthetic as the tablets and medications robbed me of any sense of real human emotions and feelings. I choose increased pain and to be me, a fuller person.

I embraced parts of my life I had ignored for many years. I am a creative person, right to the core of who I am. I had ignored that part of my life while trying to conform to the corporate needs of the employers I worked for. Many times in my professional life I was told I was a square peg in a round hole. No longer would that be the case.

While I am deeply upset and a little angry I have lost my job because of this horrible illness, and yes this 1 year anniversary of my last working day is upsetting, I have to remember what this illness has done for me. Not only am I creative I am also inherently optimistic, so with that in mind I now use my creativity as a form of therapy.

Every day is a day for creativity, be it writing, sketching, drawing, painting, crafting, stitching or doodling. This illness has afforded me the opportunity to embrace a part of my life, a part of who I am and run with it. I have submerged myself into being as creative as the illness allows. It is wonderful to reconnect to something I had ignored for so long. I wonder if by ignoring something so strong within me was not part of the cause of the illness in the first place. Should I have been climbing the corporate ladder in the first place?

The journey over the last 19 months has been fraught, emotionally draining and dam right depressing, but and it is a big BUT, I have got through it and over the last couple of months started to build a new chapter of my life accepting the limitations of the M.E and Fibromyalgia while still trying to forge ahead in a far more creative, soul enhancing way.

From a very young age I was always fiercely independent. Not being able to work and subsequently losing my job was deeply upsetting as my independence had been taken away. Thankfully I have a remarkable partner who has stood by me through this and who has had to endure the very dark places I went to when on all the medications.

I am lucky they have had the strength of character to visit those places and journey with me. It is only now, now I feel my mojo is returning and with everything I create another brick is being laid in the foundation of a better future. That better future encompasses everything I possibly should have been in the past and because of that we can start to plan our future together and get back on track.

Writing this has been so cathartic. I was so angry when I started writing it, but now I feel uplifted and thankful that I now have a freedom to explore a whole new future which includes the pain and fatigue of a horrible illness, but an illness that no longer defines me. I feel I am starting to reach a place of harmony with it. Yes I still have bad days where I can hardly get out of bed, but those days are wonderful for letting my imagination explore new thoughts and ideas for projects. I hope the future brings compromise between the health issues on my ongoing creativity.

Have my fellow sufferers been suppressing something in their lives that really should be acknowledged? I believe part of my illness is due to the continual dampening down of an inner me who was always trying to express themselves. It would be interesting to know how many make that same connection. 

Why not share your fibromyalgia journey - CLICK HERE 

A New Forum for Men (and everyone) Touched By Fibromyalgia.

Our parent organisation, FibroMen, has set up a new discussion board for men with (and others touched by) fibromyalgia.

Yes, we know! There are lots of fibromyalgia discussion boards and forums dotted all over the internet, and most of them are great. 

FibroMen as an organisation want to build their community and online audience and the forum is one way of attaining their goal of raising awareness. The site and forum is open to all, not only males with fibromyalgia, but everyone who is touched by the syndrome - wives, partners, families and carers alike are invited to share experiences - the highs, the lows and yes, the aches and pains of fibromyalgia.

Please join us by writing a quick introduction and posting a question or query that's been playing on your mind, or writing a quick helpful tip for living life with fibromyalgia.

The message boards are accessible on both sites (FibroMen and FibroGuys) we'd love to meet you there.

Please help FibroMen and FibroGuys make the forum a success by sharing with your social media contacts and wider audience.

Visit the forum here.

Thanks