Comments on: Getting Some Zzzzz's: Sleeping with Bipolar Disorder

By: John Smith

John Smith — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:12:06 +0000

Rue the sleepless nights of bipolar disorder. I manage to keep mine in check most of the year, but come October, November, December, and it’s toss and turn time. I recognized early on the adverse effects of alcohol, and cut it almost completely for OND. Last year, I had a night out with some friends and spent the next four nights begging my pillow for sleep. That was the last of that. The booz is no more. (indubitably one of the best decisions of my life). They call it flu season, I call it “please don’t catch a virus as it is living hell for at least a week season”. A few days ago I got food poisoning, and sure enough, the past few nights have me lying in bed thinking about all the worlds problems that do not really concern me. I really hate these three months. The rest of the year, no problems. I’d give up Christmas if it could be New Years Eve tomorrow.

By: blanche

blanche — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:16:03 +0000

Substituted Seroquel for alcohol, and Geodon for Seroquel. Now I only wake up if I had too much water before going to bed. Voila.

By: David Ross

David Ross — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:48:22 +0000

I’ve come to the conclusion that sleep is at the core of the disease. Solve your sleep, solve the illness.

By: thinker22

thinker22 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:28:43 +0000

I try to take my PM meds at the same time each night, not have any caffeine after noon (but I often fail at that one because I substitute tea or soda or something caffeinated for alcohol which is another no no). Try not to drink either after 8pm. Turn of the computer usually by 9. Watch TV, make a protein shake, eat dessert, feed the animals, read a book, and then it’s 11:30 or so and I’m out usually before midnight. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, but I can fall back to sleep if I get a cough drop or relieve whatever woke me up. Then I wake up sometime between 7:30 and 9 almost every morning. Seroquel has helped me regulate my sleep over the past 3 months. Before then it was hit or miss. Insomnia is really bad for an already depressed and agitated state. Now…mood swings, that’s a whole other animal yet to be tamed.

By: afreuda

afreuda — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:31:37 +0000

I do have a sleeping ritual, that helps me get in the mood for sleaping: I start with writing my journal for the day, in prder to clear up my thoughts. In the meantime, I prepare myself a ‘quiet night’ tea. After the tea is ready to be consumed (the right concentration and the right temperature) I take my cigarettes and my tea on the balcony and I smoke quietly, having small zips of tea. I watch the night trafic and reflect upon my plans for the next day, next month, next year, next therapy session, and so on for about 20 minutes and after that I go to bed. In bed I smoke another cigarette, laying down, and drinking the rest of my tea. After that I fall asleep undisturbed, wake up in the middle of the night for about 3-4 times, when I smoke again, in order to be able to fall asleep again. At about 8 thirty my alarm clock starts ringing, so I wake up for good, without any problem.
I could not separete myself from my good-night ritual, especially not the cigarette that I smoke right before falling asleep. And it’s a good thing that I leave alone, because if I went to sleep with someone else this coud arise as a ‘feature’, and… I am sure that it would not be very easily negociable.

By: Bair

Bair — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:23:02 +0000

Candida Fink. Really.

By: PsychCentral

PsychCentral — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:26:54 +0000

Bipolar Beat: Getting Some Zzzzz’s: Sleeping with Bipolar Disorder @http://zz.gd/04d0c7