Quote:
Originally Posted by Blanche_
Had insomnia most of my life and don't feel like I ever get a good sleep. I've probably had anxiety( but not depression) from a young age, but I don't think my sleep problems are just from anxiety.
Can you tell me more about sleep being an indicator of BP?
Now I take ambien and klonopin at night and still can't sleep for hours after taking both. Switched sleep medicine a good deal, but they all stop working good.
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Sleep-wake cycles tend to be longer or shorter than 24 hours and the cycle length changes over time. The first BP prodrome, a symptom that develops or has always been present before the onset of an actual disorder/illness, seems (research shows) to be problems sleeping "on time" and, hence, causes insomnia. So it's an early indicator.
There aren't many other disorders that may cause such problems with one's circadian clock. Similar problems seem to be part of autism spectrum disorders, where more sleep than normal seems to be required.
In my experience and based on my theory explaining disorders like BP, our sleep-wake cycles tend to be longer and we need relatively little sleep. But this would just be a baseline: it's worse during mania and depression can mean we need extra sleep.
Do you generally feel tired during the day? If it were just anxiety, I suppose you would always feel rather tired during the day.
I really need (typical or atypical) antipsychotics to feel as tired as a "should" feel after a long day together with a mood stabiliser to prevent the sleep-wake imbalance from becoming too extreme.
BP is not
just about sleep, but it clearly is a big part of it.