Sleep, for me, is the Holy Grail of bipolar. Sleep is stability. Sleep is wellness. Sleep is sanity. I wish I hadn't been so resistive to the idea of a regular schedule; I might have gotten well sooner. My pdoc was 100% right when he basically imposed a curfew on me a couple of months ago......I've gotten nothing but better since then. It truly was the missing element in my treatment.

I do have to take a fair amount of medication to get good quality sleep, and my pdoc says that if I don't sleep well for more than a night or two, I need to take my PRN Zyprexa for a few days, both for sleep and to tamp down the mania that almost always results from sleep loss. I hold a very responsible job now and can't afford for anyone to know I'm bipolar.....I wish I'd understood long ago that mania, rather than the depression, is my mortal enemy, so preventing it is absolutely crucial.