[SilverGirl]

I have had to call into work the last two days because I can't seem to get out of bed in the mornings. I wake up when the alarm goes off, but when I try to get up there is some force holding me down and I eventually give up and go back to sleep only to wake up 8 hrs later. I sleep 7-8 hrs a night but I can't seem to get up. Please help me. Am I starting to cycle? I am not to the point of understanding how my illness effects me to figure out when I am changing moods until I am in the middle of a new cycle.
Please, Please, help me! Do I need to call me Pdoc and get another med?
Amy

[LuN4cyLiu]

I've had trouble getting out of bed for as long as I can remember. The last ten years have been particularly crippling as now I am an adult and can't carry out my basic responsibilities. I'm a slave to my sleep cycle. I have trouble transitioning from dreamtime to waking life. The weight of my instinctual resistance to waking leaves me feeling like I don't have a choice. I see a therapist and I've tried a slew of medications with no lasting change to the oversleeping. The self-hatred I feel for not getting up on time starts a self-fullfilling cycle that makes it even harder for me to find the motivation to wake up at all. Sleeping twelve hours at a time is normal for me now. This is the most challenging aspect of BP for me. I hope you can work with a therapist right away to address your morning dudldrums before they become a longterm behavior pattern for you. Good luck. Let me know if you find a med that fixes your sleep problem.

[DaveyJones]

Hi, Amy...

I was in much the same place as you describe about 9 months ago. It wound up costing me my job! I was incredibly depressed, and was very stressed out about my condition. (I had just gotten out of the hospital for BPII a few weeks before).

Oddly enough, I didn't start feeling better again until I was off my antidepressants (Wellbutrin and Effexor) and taking only mood stabilizers (lithium carbonate and Lamictal). I believe the ADs were causing me to cycle rapidly, mainly into deep depression (ain't THAT a *****?). Anyway, I've been off of them now since about February, and I have been pretty stable, even though I have moved away from my kids (OWWWW!) and back in with my Mom. (Trust me, I'm too old to be living with Mom).

So, yeah, definitely call your pdoc...one thing they have hammered into me is that we must maintain a very regular schedule of sleep, food and exercise, so that's what I try to do!

Hope you get to feeling better,
DJ

well amy, I cant get out of bed. Maybe we could balance each other out?

Sleeplessly yours :P

oops I meant I cant get IN bed.

sorry lack of sleep frying the brain

[SilverGirl]

DJ,

"one thing they have hammered into me is that we must maintain a very regular schedule of sleep, food and exercise, so that's what I try to do!"

You mean I have to eat? Every day? Seriously, I'm good if I eat every couple of days. I've lost 40 lbs, I'm never hungry. Eating requires to much energy.

Amy

[crazymusiclvr]

Sleep has always been a problem for me since as far back as I cannot remember. Ever since I started my meds (lithium & lamictal), I have had to take seroquel to helm me sleep. If I do not take it, I do not fall asleep. However, I do a few things that I find helpful in allowing me to fall asleep:

~Try to go to bed before 11:00 p.m.
~associate a daily ritual with sleep (I brush my teeth, wash my face right before bed) and do that every night.
~Do not drink caffine past 4: p.m.
~Do everything you can to get up at the same time every morning, regardless of when you went to bed
~avoid doing anything that stimulates your brain before bed (excersizing, being on the computer, cleaning the house)
~try not to go to bed until you are ready for bed
~don't stare at the clock all night while your lying in bed
~keep a journal/mood chart of the # of hours of sleep your getting, how long it takes you to fall asleep, if you dream, ect. to share with your doctor

those are just some I can think of

~Lia

[DaveyJones]

Amy,

Congrats on the weight loss...I need to drop 40 or 50 myself...maybe I'll give up eating, too!!!

But yeah, we have to eat AND excercise !!!

Oh, well...

DJ