[ohjustchillin]

Anyone else do this? I have rapid cycling sometimes with mixed episodes while I'm switching, and I always stay up way too late, like 3am, and end up sleeping until the afternoon. And even when I wake up I just stay in bed. I think I might be in a mixed episode right now because I'll get extremely giddy/irritable, and other manic symptoms, but I'm also very tired often and I'll just space out for long periods of time, or at least be more "spacey" than usual. The worst episodes like that are when I'm driving and I actually get worried about that, but there's nothing I can do about that.

Anyways my main issue right now is probably my sleep schedule. I stay up until like 3am and then I hit a wall and pretty much immediately go to sleep. I'll set my alarm for the morning and half-involuntarily hit snooze for hours and I end up in bed until well after noon. Anyone else have this issue?

[xRavenx]

I can completely relate. I'm starting to see some signs of mixed mood in myself, and lately, I'm up until 3 AM (or the other day even 5 AM). Naturally, it causes a lot of irritability and really throws off the next day and becomes a cycle.

I don't see my pdoc for a few more weeks, so I'm trying to see if maybe I can take some steps towards adjusting my sleep cycle. I talked to my therapist about this today, and she's trying to get me to take small behavioral steps. For instance, turning off electronics at a certain time, taking certain medications earlier each night, etc.

The struggle though is that my racing thoughts and all the ideas in my head cannot be shut off, so it's easier said than done. All we can do is try our best, but definitely tell your pdoc if this continues.

This is my life. I have always been a night owl. Since childhood. I still can get up for a couple hours and sleep in "shifts".

Like Valentina, I've been a night owl since childhood. If I don't force myself into a different schedule, my norm would be to not sleep until the sun comes up. I'm nocturnal by nature.....I think my ancient ancestors were the night watchmen.

[mindwrench]

Like others here, if I let my natural patterns run the show I would stay up till dawn and then sleep for however long I can. I make myself stay on night sleep schedule by getting up every day by 9-10am even if I just went to sleep at 5am. I sometimes wonder if I had peace and quiet in the daytime and didn't get disturbed if I could get more sleep or better quality sleep in the daytime.

[*Laurie*]

In my experience, many times people with mental illness switch day and night.