There are a lot of low information comments in this thread. Let me try to inject some more information.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not "chronic fatigue". In that sense it is a misleading name. It cannot be eased by sleep. Rest is necessary to prevent further degradation, but no amount makes a patient healthy.

The dominant, maybe key symptom, is unusual exhaustion, weakness, body pain, and/or cognitive decline after any exertion; exhaustion that is not easily recovered from. This symptom is called "Post Exertional Malaise" or just PEM. "Exertion" in the context of CFS could mean walking to the mailbox, doing the dishes, reading a book, or even watching TV. Sometimes patients call it "payback". Pushing too hard can cause a worsening of the condition for months or years.

CFS is also called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, in the UK at least. Some people claim these are separate conditions, but it is now generally accepted that they are not. Some people call it ME/CFS. It is a condition with a name problem, for sure.

To get diagnosed with CFS is a long process. Despite attempts to improve this, it is still a diagnosis of exclusion, as there is no known biomarker. That means first, you have to get tested for all things that are even kind of testable that might present your symptoms. At a minimum: white blood cell count, vitamin levels, thyroid functionality, HIV, MS, lupus. If you're lucky, you'll get diagnosed and treated through this process.

Once you know you don't have one of these conditions, you must then meet a strict set of criteria. The best criteria these days is the [Canadian Consensus Criteria](https://me-pedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Consensus_Criteria). It is likely that you can have one of the above conditions AND CFS, but that is difficult to sort out with our current process.

This means that CFS patients as a group may have multiple underlying conditions. In the past few years, some high profile patients have been successfully treated for a neurological condition similar to Chiari Malformation I, via cervical fusion. It is an expensive treatment, with high risk, and no solid research behind it. Many other CFS patients have received it without improvement. The search continues.

The medical community has frequently found itself at odds with CFS patients, who regularly report outcomes contrary to some medical expectations. There is a famous study called the PACE trial, which encouraged CFS patients to use "GET", or Graded Exercise Therapy, and CBT. The underlying idea is that patients have become scared of exercise and must be gradually coaxed back. This study has been heavily criticized for its unscientific methodology and the damage that GET in particular causes to patients. It seems to be fading from popularity, but many medical professionals continue to stake their professional reputations on it, and insist on treating their CFS patients with only CBT and GET. The NIH in the UK recently dropped GET from their CFS guidelines, to no small amount of drama.

For a patient with CFS, the research backed options are few. With CFS research underfunded for decades, there is little of rigor to guide you. There is a lot of snake oil, and there are a lot of guinea-pig style options that risk worsening your condition. The best patients can hope for is to find a few things that make their new disability easier to bear, and to learn how to pace, meaning how to work within their new exertion limitations.

The state of CFS medical opinion and research has been slowly advancing over the past 10 years, with one bright light being the [Open Medicine Foundation's 'End ME/CFS Project'](https://www.omf.ngo/the-end-mecfs-project/), which is seeing multiple research teams from across the globe, including teams from Harvard and Stanford, working together to solve this problem that affects 100s of thousands, if not millions, globally.

If you want to know more, the OMF and MEPedia sites linked above are great resources to start. The movie [Unrest](https://www.netflix.com/title/80168300?source=35) from 2016 helped turn the public opinion tide and is still worth watching today.