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sarahsweets · May 16, 2019 at 01:56 AM

This is a subject near and dear to my heart. The first thing I'd urge you to do is to get a sleep study. Go see a sleep specialist. Many people say they have insomnia or another sleeping issue and leave it at that without investigating it further or figuring out how to deal with it. I will share my story...

All my life I had insomnia. I also have bipolar but it wasn't just when I was manic that I had sleep issues. I had problems falling asleep and early waking or I would have nights I was up all night. I was always an early riser but also a night owl-you can see the issue. When I was in my early 30's even though I had a p-doc that treated me for sleep issues I decided to see a specialist about it and had an overnight sleep study and the results were telling.
Of course when I was there I fell asleep not too late but they found some interesting things. First I moved around a lot when I sleep and talk when I sleep-restless. More importantly was what they found with my brain waves.

(if I remember this right..) When we are awake or our minds are in an active state we exhibit Alpha brain waves. It doesnt necessarily correlate with how hard we are thinking or what we are doing, just that the brain is "awake". As we move through the sleep phases those waves basically move towards Delta waves which are during the deepest phases of sleep-stage III and IV. (stage II is REM and despite what people think, it is not the deepest most restful stage). Well they found that when I was in the deeper stages of sleep my brain was showing alpha waves at certain points when it should have been all delta waves. Meaning, my brain was in "active" mode even though it was in the deeper stages of sleep and when it was supposed to be resting. I did have delta waves but I fluctuated between the two. So I wasn't getting the right balance of deep sleep and my brain wasn't resting as much. This screwed up my circadium rhythm, my sleep schedule, caused delayed sleep phase syndrome and early waking.

The other thing I learned was despite the 8 hours of sleep a night mantra we are used to hearing there are actually people that do not need that amount of sleep. Most do, but biologically there are some who need less sleep. It was explained to me like this: As people age and become elderly or senior citizens many times they wake up super early- sometimes they will go to bed early but often they go to bed at a certain time and wake up really early. This is because as we age we need less sleep, physically. So in a sense my body was sort of hardwired to need less the way an older person needs less. This is not to say my body is like a senior citizen, only that it was working in that fashion when it comes to sleep.

How I treated it: I took benzos and hypnotics on and off for years. They were not good for me. I would stumble up to bed and have to be assisted. I would do stuff I couldn't remember. I would sleep walk and my short term memory suffered. Plus I am an alcoholic in recovery so I avoid those meds now. I had read online about sleep hygiene and made my own sleep training program. I go to bed and wake up in the same windows of time every single day no matter what. For me that means going to bed between 10-12 and waking up between 4-6 depending on what I have going on. To do this I had to go to bed at the same time. I would lay there and if I was still awake after half an hour I would get up and pee or have a cup of tea or drink, maybe read and get back into bed and try again. I had to repeat that multiple times a night in the beginning. I had to set my alarm and even if I went to bed at 1am I was still up 4-6 hours later. My alarm went off and I got right out of bed-no snooze. I had to repeat this routine over and over and it took about 9 months and now it works like a charm. I do not watch anything intense or active before bed- I am in the bed by 10 and usually am asleep by 30 minutes. I often wake up before my alarm but I still use my alarm.

I had to not take naps. No matter how tired I was I forced myself to not lay down during the day. I promise you this works. But you have to be consistent and willing. I cant guarantee it works for everyone but I have had many people tell me they tried it for a week and that it doesnt work and I have told them to give it more time. When they haven't given it more time they just chalk it up to not working for them. I suspect at least trying longer than a week would help determine if you are on the right path or not. But I cant stress enough the importance of a sleep study. It is vital to rule out things and shed light on whether there are biological reasons for your sleep issues.
Hope this helps. Sorry it was long.
-sweets

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss P

I'm not the healthiest person, but, I am trying to make improvements and build on this. I have had sleeping problems since I was a teenager. In my 20's, I went back n forth to my doc, stating, I have sleeping problems. I've been diagnosed with anxiety, OCD, and (although not diagnosed) I believe I've other problems. I only wish that more of my friends/family shared same view. I don't believe my story is uncommon, I'm sad to say. I've heard similar accounts, it's awful.

What I'd love advice on, is, do any of you believe you are hard wired, only to getting in a certain amount of sleep each night? I'm not exaggerating, when I say, I've never had more than 4/6 hours of sleep, in any one night, in 20 years plus. I have (do) meditate, exercise, following eating plans. What works, what helps you? Sorry, this is a bit of a rant, but people think I'm lazy, and act like this is something within my control. All I know is, I'm out of ideas.....anybody relate?