Recovery period is prolonged, usually taking 24 hours or longer

Recovery period is prolonged, usually taking 24 hours or longer or prolonged recovery after exertion refers to the recovery time after over-exertion causes post-exertional malaise (PEM) or post-exertional symptom exacerbation. Symptoms caused by PEM do not stop when the over-exertion ends, even when the exertion may be minimal.

Prevalence
The prolonged recovery time in ME/CFS patients is one of the compulsory criterion of post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), which is defined by the International Consensus Criteria for ME, and is required in many other diagnostic criteria definitions of ME/CFS including the current CDC criteria.

Symptom recognition
A prolonged recovery time is a well recognized ME/CFS symptoms, and is not found in healthy people and rarely found in people with other fatiguing or neurological illnesses.