[annmaria]

My mood on a daily basis is going from good to a sudden low drop that lasts awhile. All is good and out of no where I feel terrible. This happens quite a lot during waking hours. My sleep has also got poor waking up frequently during the night.

Wondering why this is happening and is there something I should be doing to change this pattern. Thanks advance.

[Bolivar83]

Sorry you are going through this. May I ask, have you seen your doc? Is it not uncommon for meds to be affected by stress, insomnia, hormonal changes; I find it so w/me. Any of these can aggravate my depression/mania; sometimes even without an instigating factor. Wonder if you have had anything significant going on, has this fluctuation happened before? Do you know what agitates your mania/depression?

Hope you feel more level, soon. Take care

[Skeezyks]

Hello annmaria: I'm sorry you are experiencing this difficulty. I don't know as I really have much of an idea with regard to why this is happening. To some extent, I would presume this is simply a symptom of your being Bipolar (assuming that you are.) This may simply be the "schedule" you are on, so to speak. The other thing that occurs to me though is... you mentioned your sleep is poor... waking up frequently at night. This is a problem I have. And, when I don't get enough quality sleep, I know I have a much more difficult time when I'm awake.

I recall reading an article in our local newspaper a while back. It was talking about the need for "quality" sleep. In other words, the deep REM sleep. What the article was saying was that no matter how much sleep you get, if you're not getting down into those lower levels of deep sleep, you're not getting the healing benefits that those deeper levels of sleep provide. So in your case, & in mine, where we're waking up frequently at night, we're missing out on the healing properties of deep sleep. Of course, it's one thing to know that. It's something else to figure out what to do about it. The article I read didn't have any suggestions regarding that. And, unfortunately, I don't either. In my case, spending less time here on PC, & getting more exercise might help.