I don’t know if it’s the coming of Spring or DST, but I always have a slight hypomanic period around the “spring forward”. Of course it ends a horrible severe winter depression so I tend to welcome it! The lithium kept me from a bad depression this winter, and it seems like the hypomania isn’t coming around either…

I wish I could live close to the equator from November to April. March is my bad month. Sleep cycle out of wack for about 2 weeks and alternate with insomnia and hypersomnia. Very foggy and feek blah. It always lifts, then life as usual.

Thank you so much for this. I perpetually forget about the circadian rhythm and how it plays such a part in my mood balance. I have have been all over the place and forgot how this happens twice a year. Thanks for the reminder!

I always look forward to DST. It always makes me feel better to have an extra hour of sunlight. Also, DST is right around the time Spring arrives which always gets me out of the Winter funk. More light, the better I feel.

I dislike DST too, it throws my rhythm off. I’m already cranky and sleepy as it is (I have insomnia and maybe SAD). I was really depressed this winter and of course, welcome springtime and anticipating the warm weather.

I managed to take a mini vacation last week by taking days off around DST because last year, I was a wreck. I felt like I was becoming unglued, and stress from my job didn’t help matters either (I work for the dept. of mental health, go figure). Around this time of year, we have our charts checked to see if they’re in compliance, so that means everyone else who didn’t turn in their work on time before suddenly appears with paperwork that I have to file to make sure our charts are correct. That becomes my month of hell.

After survey left, I figured I needed a vacation to do absolutely nothing. It took me three days to relax and not worry about work. I thought I was fine until Monday morning, my alarm went off, and I immedately had a panic attack. I think I need a much longer vacation…

I have a seasonal pattern, but it is more closely related to how much sunlight I am getting, and not DST. This year, warm, sunny weather came almost a month early to Minnesota, and guess what, my hypomania is hitting about a month earlier than usual. Last year, we had a severe spring drought, sunny every day, same thing, got the hypomania early. Also, in January, I sometimes get hypomania when there is bitter cold, since every day is sunny and the snow reflects the light, is what I figure. December and March, when it is overcast, I am horribly depressed. When I look at my mood chart data, when we have a sunnier than usual December (bitter cold hits early), guess what, the hypomania starts earlier. My brother has the same exact pattern. So that makes me wonder if DST has much of anything to do with it, or if it’s really that the days are getting longer or shorter and sunlight variations.

The DST is affecting me already. I feel a little bit of mania but not the happy kind. I feel more agitated and stressed for no other reason. This sucks. My next doctor apointment is not until mid-April.