I have similar issues to yours though it varies. I will go through periods of less sleep but feeling exhausted (usually if I'm depressed, but not always and not manic). I will go to bed at 10 PM and wake around 2 AM but still feel tired. After lunch, I will have to take a nap to be able to function, even doing chores like folding laundry or cooking, much less driving. Then, it will even out, and I will go through a period of getting more like 6 hr. of sleep or becoming hypomanic and not missing the lack of sleep until it's been awhile.

My pdoc now has me on Clonidine, propanolol, and melatonin for sleep. I used to take Trazodone (helped me fall asleep though it would take an hour or more to kick in) and hydroxyzine (helped me stay asleep). That combo worked for me for a long time. Then, after a bad manic phase, it stopped working. Some years ago, I took low-dose Seroquel for sleep, and that worked for me.

Now, though, I'm on the higher dose of Seroquel, and actually, that usually knocks me out flat. I think the Clonidine & melatonin help, but really it's the Seroquel. Maybe ask your pdoc if you can try changing your sleep meds?

Otherwise, I have to function in the morning many days, getting my daughter up and ready for school, driving her to school, making morning appointments because that is the only thing that will work around my schedule (having to pick my daughter up from school in the afternoon or to get an appointment when the doctor wants to see me back or when I don't have time to wait on getting in to see a doctor, like the neurologist).

It really is inconvenient to live like this, especially on the weekends, when my husband will be home, and my daughter wants attention from one of us. He is exhausted from work (teachers have it very hard, especially teaching high school and given unreasonable demands or having an assistant principal making you his project of the year and wasting your time when you need to be doing other work stuff, so then you have to be up late at night or work on it on the weekend). Right now, it's really hard because my husband wants to do things around the house that he's had to put off during the school year since he is off work for the summer. I feel guilty if I need to sleep 3 or 4 hours during the day to function because he can't do the things he wants to do and that need doing.