A swollen face and hands in the mornings is a common symptom offibromyalgia.
When you have fibromyalgia, you may also experience other morning symptoms like exhaustion, stiffness, and aches.
Not everyone with fibromyalgia has these morning symptoms, but they’re common.
Diane Diederich E+ / Getty Images
This is one of those areas medical research hasn’t yet explained.
This article discusses morning symptoms of fibromyalgia, including swollen face and hands.
Again, science can’t say for sure why.
Get our printable guide for your next healthcare provider’s appointment to help you ask the right questions.
The puffiness is generally believed to be the result of excess fluid, not inflammation.
(Some cases offibromyalgia may involve inflammation, though.)
They may also havesleep that is generally unrefreshing.
Any one of these problems can leave you tired the next day.
If you have several of them in combination, it’s even harder to get good-quality sleep.
Otherfibromyalgia symptomscan make this worse.
Pain can certainly keep you awake or wake you up periodically.
They are also prone to excessive sweating.
Depending on your symptoms, your healthcare provider may recommend a sleep study to diagnose sleep disorders.
Pain management and anxiety treatment can be an important part of helping you sleep better as well.
For many, the achiness tends to be different from other fibromyalgia pain.
It’s not clear why their bodies are like this in the mornings.
What happens is that a position makes something start to hurt, so they’ll shift a little.
Then something else starts hurting, so they shift again.
It’s possible that they’re stiff in the morning because they haven’t shifted around enough all night.
Some people find relief from morning soreness with a hot bath, possibly with Epsom salt, before bed.
Others try simpleyogaor other stretches before sleep or before getting out of bed.
Medication, either for pain or sleep, may also help.
Get our printable guide for your next healthcare provider’s appointment to help you ask the right questions.
Again, each person has to figure out what works best for them.
Summary
Many people with fibromyalgia experience morning symptoms.
A puffy face and hands are common.
So is morning exhaustion and stiffness.
Finding relief for your morning symptoms is an individual process.
Some people find taking a hot bath before bed can help.
Others get relief from massage therapy.
Also, they’re called morning symptoms for a reasonthey generally clear up as the day goes along.
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