[ultramar]

Lack of sleep is a big trigger for me as I imagine it is for many others.

I've had trouble with sleep most of my life, but since taking Seroquel it has gotten a lot better.

Nonetheless I can be terrible about getting to bed at a decent time. I know that after taking Seroquel, I will (usually) be semi-comatose in about 45 mins, but I end up taking it far too late, and then go to bed far too late. I get caught up in what I'm doing (forget) and/or just don't feel like going to bed. This causes big problems all around.

Does anyone have any advice on developing a pretty strict sleep schedule (making sure you go to bed at a certain time every night [at least weeknights]) and if night meds come into it, making sure you take them when you should --so you can go to bed when you should?

Does anyone have some sort of ritual surrounding going to bed that helps, ways of reminding yourself, or any other recommendations?

Thanks.

[faerie_moon_x]

I have a ritual and it's mostly because of my baby, haha. My ritual is very strange, but it actually works for me.

He's 17 months old and routin is very good for babies, and also good for me! It's pretty simple. When it's time for bed we put on jammies, go into the bedroom and I turn on Conan. My t.v. is hooked up to a laptop, we don't have cable in there, so I watch it on the tbs site whenever I want. My baby loves Conan (not sure why.) He even says "CoCo." LOL. For some reason, Conan not only helps my baby go to sleep, but watching the show ends temper tantrums.

I don't need to remind myself. The baby starts rubbing his head and eyes when he's sleepy. So, he's like my "go to bed" alarm for now.

[Confusedinomicon]

I generally sleep between 1-3 a.m. (I work closing shift at work)

Usually I naturally feel tired around that time so I just end up asleep.

I found the best way to sleep earlier is to force yourself off whatever you're doing and lie down at the designated time. Even if you don't fall asleep right away your body will start to associate that time to sleep.

Like I can be really tired and want to sleep between 10-12 am but it won't work and I'll end up staying up until 1. ~_~

[middlepath]

My plan of attack was reversed a bit...rather than set a strict bedtime, I set a strict "wake-up" time. after a few days of waking up slightly sleep deprived, it forced me to start going to bed earlier. I also am regimented about taking my meds right at 8:30. Since meds make me drousy, it sure makes an early bedtime easier to deal with.

I hope you find what works for you! Cheers.

[swheaton]

Regardless of what day of the week, I am asleep no later than 10pm. I stick to a routine of lying down by 830 and its lights out at 930. Keeping it the same has helped and seems to make my night meds work better.

[BipolaRNurse]

Originally Posted by ultramar

Lack of sleep is a big trigger for me as I imagine it is for many others.

I've had trouble with sleep most of my life, but since taking Seroquel it has gotten a lot better.

Nonetheless I can be terrible about getting to bed at a decent time. I know that after taking Seroquel, I will (usually) be semi-comatose in about 45 mins, but I end up taking it far too late, and then go to bed far too late. I get caught up in what I'm doing (forget) and/or just don't feel like going to bed. This causes big problems all around.

Does anyone have any advice on developing a pretty strict sleep schedule (making sure you go to bed at a certain time every night [at least weeknights]) and if night meds come into it, making sure you take them when you should --so you can go to bed when you should?

Does anyone have some sort of ritual surrounding going to bed that helps, ways of reminding yourself, or any other recommendations?

Thanks.

Oh, my goodness, I could've written this post myself. I am TERRIBLE at sleep self-discipline when I'm not working. I get up at a decent hour in the morning but have taken to staying up until 2-3 AM, at least until the past few days since I forced myself to take my nighttime meds at 11 PM which gets me to sleep by 12:30-1 AM.

It's amazing how much of a difference it's made in controlling my moods. I'm getting out of a nasty mixed episode that lasted over 2 weeks, and now I haven't cried or been irritable in almost 72 hours. Go me! Yes, I'm still staying up pretty late, but I get up around 7 and feel adequately rested.

I do best on about 6 hrs. sleep anyway---if I get much more than that, I feel like hammered $#!* the next day.

[ultramar]

Originally Posted by BipolaRNurse

Oh, my goodness, I could've written this post myself. I am TERRIBLE at sleep self-discipline when I'm not working. I get up at a decent hour in the morning but have taken to staying up until 2-3 AM, at least until the past few days since I forced myself to take my nighttime meds at 11 PM which gets me to sleep by 12:30-1 AM.

It's amazing how much of a difference it's made in controlling my moods. I'm getting out of a nasty mixed episode that lasted over 2 weeks, and now I haven't cried or been irritable in almost 72 hours. Go me! Yes, I'm still staying up pretty late, but I get up around 7 and feel adequately rested.

I do best on about 6 hrs. sleep anyway---if I get much more than that, I feel like hammered $#!* the next day.

Yeah, on weekends I end up sleeping way too much, feel like crap, keep doing it anyway. For the record, I should be in bed now. Watching a "Big Bang Theory" marathon. However, also for the record, at precisely 12:01am I will have access (hospital where I receive care website where you can access test results/reports) to my latest cervical spine MRI, anxious to see if my spinal cord is still straight, given that past history and current symptoms are suggesting otherwise...

I feel so much better when I get a good night's sleep (on Seroquel, minimum 7 hrs), I don't know why I do this to myself... (MRI aside -I could wait until tomorrow ).

I'm glad you're feeling better!

[hamster-bamster]

Two of my p-docs have said that the worst thing you can do is to miss the time when you naturally get sleepy and stay too late, because it is then difficult to get sleepy again. So if you know that it takes 45 mins between taking Seroquel and being semicomatose, then determine when you want to be in bed, take Seroquel 45 mins before that time, and then do something quiet for those 45 minutes, and then just turn the lights out.

I will turn the lights out in 10 minutes myself to offer you moral support! I take the sleep meds at 10 and turn the lights out at 11. It works.

[A Red Panda]

I know what time I naturally wake up around (somewhere around 6am, my alarm is set for then but I rarely wake up to it because I'm already awake). Sometimes on weekends my body might sleep in until 7-8am... so 6am is just my median really.

So I decided that bedtime needs to be between 9-10pm so that I can make sure I get enough sleep. Which means I go to bed at 9pm, and I read. I know a lot of times advice says to not read in bed... but it's what works for me. It's the best way to calm my thoughts down enough to actually fall asleep.

I'll read until I feel myself not paying attention, and then I'll turn the lights off. Seeing as I love to read, I typically enjoy going to bed and don't delay it because I'll want to read! And on the nights when I'm not falling asleep as soon as I should be - at least I'm laying down and resting quietly.

I'm also not allowed to get out of bed until it's nearly time for my alarm to go. I find that it messes with my body -- I typically want to get up and DO EVERYTHING as soon as I wake up, so I force myself to stay in that bed no matter how much it might drive me crazy. (I usually have issues with waking up insanely early, and it gets worse if I give up and get out of bed)

[~Christina]

There is no sleep hygiene in my life at all ! I have tried and tired and tried. My insomnia goes back to about the age of 11 or so ( 46 now).

I have been on and tried every sleep med out there. Currently the Halcion is helpful to a degree. But I can often go a week if not longer with no sleep , sometimes i have a major crash and will sleep 20+ hours , sometimes I have a week or so that I get an average 7-8 hours a nite. there is really no make sense of it. So I no longer even worry. Even when I was was working 12 hour shifts 6 out of 7 days a week I would maybe sleep maybe not.

I have stop being worried about it. it just makes matters worse for me, So I sleep when I can and I don't when I can't. Certainly not Ideal , but its my reality.

My husband lays down in bed and is sound asleep within minutes and happily snoring away .. I get very jealous ! But it's ok at least I know someone who doesnt struggle with sleep like I do.

[BlueInanna]

Had pdoc today, she's good, talks to me a lot. Biggest topic was my trouble with routines. She probed until we found a few things I do everyday that have become habit routine and how they become easy to do. She told me a method called linking. So I'm starting with how I put away chickens every night, add to that 1 thing like a shower. I can't commit to that so I chose preparing our clothes to wear the next morning. Later I'm supposed to add another evening thing, until I have an evening routine down. I'm scared of it but it makes sense. Hopefully I will end up with a beautifully scheduled routine. Thought of you, maybe this idea of linking could help you design your sleep ritual too.