I've always had sleep troubles, as far back as I can remember. In addition, my mom tells me I was a poor sleeper as a baby & toddler and never napped, woke at the slightest sound. My poor mom, we lived in an apartment duplex very close to a running, often used train track with a intersection where the train would always blow its horn while my parents were building our house and while I was a toddler and my middle sister a baby.

I remember being so jealous of my middle sister. Around the time I was 4, my mom had us both sleeping in a double bed. We'd talk a bit at night, and then she would go right to sleep. It was never that easy for me, and my sleep problems only got worse from there. In high school, I had lots of nights on 2 hours sleep, maybe; in college, skipping up to 3 days sleeping (not sure if that was the bipolar, the anorexia, or both). Everyone who diagnosed me with major depression claimed it was lack of nutrients from the eating disorder, but I wonder now if it was a part of bipolar, especially since I'd hardly sleep in high school and then overachieve (class valedictorian).