[BeyondtheRainbow]

The last few nights I've been awake until 4 or later. Last night I think it was 5. I'm exhausted, I have so much to do this week and I need rest and sleep just isn't happening. I thought I could fall asleep about 11 and turned the lights out and laid there for an hour getting more and more antsy. So now I took a PRN klonopin and am hoping it kicks it although so far it hasn't. If I don't get sleep tonight things get messed up for the next several days.

I told my sister a few weeks ago that I'd come down to watch my nieces so she could wrap gifts and things. She picked Tuesday which is rough because it is the day after my 5 hours of driving to see my pdoc and I'm supposed to see my therapist Wednesday. So I'm trying to work things out with her and feeling guilty that I can't just do things when i want to like a normal person.

I really, really need sleep....

[Pastel Kitten]

I'm sorry to hear you can't sleep. That would be so incredibly frustrating. And wow, your pdoc is 5 hours away? That's crazy! I'm guessing you couldn't find anyone closer to you? I hope that you manage to get at least some sleep soon. Lack of sleep, especially for people like us, is a huge stress inducer.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

My pdoc is 2.5 hours away, so 5 hours total. 5 hours would be too much, even for her and she's amazing.

I live in an extremely rural area and there are very few psychiatrists here. 14 years ago when I finished the clinical trial I did after I was diagnosed I tried to get in with someone in the next city (where I see my therapist, about 75 minutes away). Nobody would take a bipolar patient. I was put on one waiting list but after 14 years I'm starting to think they won't call . So my therapist got me into to see the one at the counseling center. She was there 3 times per month and otherwise had a practice an hour north. The about 8 years ago she took a job with a big teaching hospital and I moved there with her because she is pretty much perfect, an angel with a prescription pad. So I have one really long day per month when I see my therapist, take off and grab lunch to go and then see my pdoc (and she's always late and lately our visits have been 90 minutes to 2 hours) and then 2.5 hours home.

There honestly isn't much I'd have done here though; I worked in healthcare too long and know too many horror stories. One of my patients was seeing one of the only pdocs around here for depression following a stroke. She had to go on prednisone for treatment of a rash and on prednisone she had a few hallucinations. Prednisone causes all kinds of things and hallucinations are certainly not out of the realm of possibility. He put her IP (where they couldn't handle her medical condition so refused to let her out of bed for 4 days) and they put her on haldol. He told her she had to take it the rest of her life. Never said why, no diagnosis, no reason, nothing. She couldn't wait to go home to stop it and while I usually think drs should be aware or involved I totally understood that one. And that's the GOOD local pdoc...

Thanks for the nice words about sleep. I'm used to having trouble but it had reached the desperate point. I slept 5 hours with extra PRN meds and hope to get back to sleep soon. I woke up for the bathroom and am pretty wide awake so I hope that I didn't get all my sleep in that block. Sleep is one of the hardest parts of bipolar. Before I got really sick and again when I was more stable my body liked to go to bed early and get up early (for a long time I slept from 11-4 and it was great). Now it's more erratic than ever before that I remember although my therapist might remember other times it was worse. And then adding this to the already really bad and you get me wondering if I can take a nap in the waiting room at my pdoc's today (answer: no because it's always full).

Maybe tomorrow......

[HALLIEBETH87]

Have you tried melatonin? I tried it last night and finally slept some.

[alincdytyourmeds]

I too am having a hard time sleeping. I have a cold and last night I took 2 nyquil, and my tamazpam thinking it would knock me out, but no such luck I saw every hour on the hour. I think the holiday stress, plus a cold might have something to do with it I couldn't do any deep breathing exercises like I normally do when I can't sleep. Good Luck maybe tonight will be the night.

[Nix]

Hope you're able to sleep soon!!!

[raspberrytorte]

Not being able to sleep is frustrating. I hate it. When I was having my insomnia period the only thing that really helped me was that over the counter sleep aid stuff (not unisom... the kind that has the same ingredient as benadryl). I hope you're able to get sleep tonight!

[BeyondtheRainbow]

No but that's a good idea. I'll ask my pdoc today if I'm allowed to use it with my MAOI. I'm pretty sure it's fine and that she's said I could use it in the past but I never have.

I'm so glad you slept. Not sleeping is a nightmare, ironically enough.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by HALLIEBETH87

Have you tried melatonin? I tried it last night and finally slept some.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I hope you are feeling better. I can't take cold meds so every time I have a cold I stop sleeping and it is so hard to be sick and not sleeping.

Originally Posted by alincdytyourmeds

I too am having a hard time sleeping. I have a cold and last night I took 2 nyquil, and my tamazpam thinking it would knock me out, but no such luck I saw every hour on the hour. I think the holiday stress, plus a cold might have something to do with it I couldn't do any deep breathing exercises like I normally do when I can't sleep. Good Luck maybe tonight will be the night.

[wiretwister]

(((( hugs )))) .... soon I pray .