Melatonin is good for about 3 months only, according to my psychiatrist. Magnesium, potassium citrate, calcium supplements may help, also. Take a high quality mulitple vitamin daily (ask your pharmacist if you need to know which one is good). 5htpTryptophan is helpful for sleep, as well. Avoid plain tryptophan; it can't cross the blood-brain barrier and is not helpful for sleep.

Light is especially detrimental when it gets close to bedtime. It slows down the production of melatonin, so I'd suggest that we cut off our tv earlier in the evening
and lower the light on the computer screen as well if we're online anywhere near
bedtime. Melatonin is manufactured in the pineal gland in the brain and is produced
at highest levels when darkness arrives.

Please try to stop drinking water from the faucet at home. I use strictly purified water and often supplement with an enhanced electrolyte water --available almost everywhere. It's the chlorine in water that's not good for us.

Those things calm the system very nicely, along (most importantly) with the
Omega 3's which are of significant benefit in bipolar illness.

One very good paperback for letting you know what benefits depression, bipolar illness, etc.,(and other illnesses) is What You Must Know About Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & More, Choosing The Nutrients That Are Right For You by Pamela Wartian Smith, MD, MPH.

I go back from time to time to read her work just to update myself on what I need to purchase at Vitamin Shoppe or another specialty store for vitamins.

The psychotropic meds take so much from our nutritional storage. It's good to replace those things if we learn what we need.