[Ralau]

I wonder if there's anyone else like me. I know your sleep routine gets ruined when having a mood episode, but I somehow feel like I have been a bit odd sleeper my whole life.

I have always considered myself as a "night owl". Even as a child I stayed up late and probably had some sleeping problems. I remember once going to kindergarten or school after no sleep. I used to be tired after badly slept nights, but later when I became depressed I noticed that little sleep actually makes me sometimes feel much better and "cures my depression".

Well, for many years I have either slept too little or too much. I often stayed (and still do) up nights and this kind of sleeping habit made my mood swing back and forth before I was on any medication. I still don't have anything to help me sleep, but at least I don't get high so easily due to my sleeping patterns. And of course I don't want to sleep too much, because sleeping too many hours makes me feel depressed.

I sometimes sleep like normal people do, but it never lasts longer than few weeks.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I never slept well even as a newborn. They actually gave my mom phenobarbital to sedate me when I was a few months old but it scared her when she tried it because it sedated me far more than you want to sedate your infant.

As long as I've been on meds I've needed multiple meds to sleep and generally at a fairly high dose of both or all.

I think it was the first sign of bipolar for me.

[SorryShaped]

When I finally notice I'm not sleeping enough, mania has already set in. Of course I feel better at that point. My sleep hygiene has become as important as any other part of my self-care and is very much something I pay attention to. I write this being wide awake at 11:10 pm and getting up at 6. Not enough sleep but I feel the meds coming on already.
Doctors say psychosis sets in after 72 hours of no sleep. I must have been psychotic quote a few times and quite a number of times throughout my childhood into my early 20's. Sometimes I didn't sleep any for a week or so. I also know I didn't feel connected to anything those entire times and once it was over it was always very bad.
You have to do what works for you.

My sleep pattern varies with the time of year as does my mood. At this time of year my depression is at it's most intense and i am sleeping long hours into the afternoon, getting up to take my dog out and then resting for a few more hours until it is dark again. I'm keeping vampire's hours. I stay up late, til 2:00am.

Beginning in the early Spring, sometimes as early as February, i start losing interest in sleep and get more and more energetic as hypomania sets in. I start going to bed at midnight and getting up at 5:00am -- sometimes even 4:00am!

I don't work and i am a loner so i'm free to enjoy my various sleep patterns. There are advantages to each phase and i try to find the good in them and not harrass myself to keep to a routine. I answer to no one! (Except my dog!)

I too have never slept well.

like the Op I'm the type of person who would be up at 1/ 2 A.M, playing a game, voice sounding totally normal, not affected by anything

you know what really gets to me?

that's people who sleep in.

I don't know how they can do that, or what the benifit even is.

I think because I don't have that luxury, but still, it just seems a waste

[emgreen]

Unfortunately, Ralau, that's one of the side-effects of having bipolar disorder for many people. My sleep pattern is pretty much the same as yours. While I'm not much of a "night owl," 3-5 hours of sleep is pretty normal when I'm feelin' good (& that's with sleep meds.) 12-15 hours of sleep isn't out of the question when I'm depressed. Strange how this works, no?

I noticed you have only 26 posts. Welcome to Psych Central!

[sonjaward809]

I don't think I've ever had a normal sleep pattern. I never thought anything was wrong with it until I got diagnosed as Bipolar when I was 17. I would always would stay up late or sleep most of the day away.

[Guiness187055]

I never had a normal sleep pattern. As an infant I would sleep 4 hours or 14 no rhyme or reason. Now I sleep as little as 4 hours and as much as 13. It all depends on my mood.

[~Christina]

Life long insomniac here. I stopped stressing if I sleep or not , just made matters worse.

[annielovesbacon]

I saw just yesterday that for the "average" person it takes about 7 min to fall asleep. I was so in shock that my mouth dropped open, literally. The same post said for people with mental illnesses the average is about one hour. I still was in shock.
I never have been able to fall asleep faster than two hours. Usually I toss and turn for about four hours before I can sleep. Doesn't matter what medicine or drugs I take.

I slept normal as a child, but after enduring a couple years of sexual assault on the daily starting at 13 that's when my sleep went haywire.

[Pheasant11]

I never realized that so many with bp have sleeping problems. I’ve alwsys attributed my insomnia to just being different. I guess not. Thank you.

[Trippin2.0]

I’ve always had my own kind of sleeping pattern, since at least the age of 11.

It’s just another dimension to the artwork that is me

[Ralau]

Originally Posted by annielovesbacon

I saw just yesterday that for the "average" person it takes about 7 min to fall asleep. I was so in shock that my mouth dropped open, literally. The same post said for people with mental illnesses the average is about one hour. I still was in shock.
I never have been able to fall asleep faster than two hours. Usually I toss and turn for about four hours before I can sleep. Doesn't matter what medicine or drugs I take.

Same here. Usually it takes hours to fall asleep. Only exception for me is when I'm depressed.
My mom used to say that sleeping problems run in our family. Well, I think problems with sleeping are just one symptom of mental illness.
But this information was very interesting, and it makes me jealous, that someone is able to fall asleep in about 7 min.

[LadyShadow]

Sleeping has always been a problem. Probably started in my teens. And even when I got older and started working full time, after a long day's work I still wasn't able to rest well at night. I ended up getting addicted to Tylenol PMs at that time, and then after my bipolar diagnosis, and the craziness of mania, I became addicted to my sleep meds.

[walksinthesun]

I can get to sleep, but I try to wake up at three, five, until finally six arrives and I can make coffee. I've tried melatonin, but I think the answer is going to be to cut back on the alcohol...ugh

[emgreen]

I'm certainly note sleeping much lately, & when I'm depressed, I sleep too much. It seems there's no middle ground.

[Zigy]

Not really "ever" but I'm 50yo and my sleep problems started in my early 30s. I've been on sleeping pills for over 10 years now :/

[xRavenx]

I haven't really ever slept like a normal person. My mom even told me as a baby, I had some problems. When I was about 4, I had a sleep disorder where I would have something similar to night terrors. I would wake up scared and have visual hallucinations, and I would later remember the hallucinations, rather than forget them the way some children with night terrors would.

That luckily passed (other then periods of psychosis during severe episodes, mainly auditory) but insomnia was always a big issue my entire life....or having states of such high energy, I want to stay up and do a million projects that I find are enjoyable when hypomanic. Mania is especially bad with the lack of sleep, but I am pretty much dependent on multiple meds for sleep whether manic or not.

[99fairies]

It does not matter what time I go to bed. I wake up at 4 am, or 5:30 at the latest.

[UpDownAround]

I don't sleep well without medication. After I stopped the saphris, I had a couple of nearly sleepless nights before I got some benadryl. Saw my pdoc today and she is okay with me taking benadryl as long as it works. I was on ambien a few years ago until it became less effective and then it was hard to get off of it. I built up a tolerance to trazodone over time. I will probably build up a tolerance for benadryl next. Melatonin has never done anything for me. Alcoholic haze sleep was always poor quality and I quit drinking 7 months ago.

[Leia78]

I've never had normal sleep. Even in Air Force basic training when we had strict bed and wake times, I couldn't adjust. I just dealt with it.

Am trying to get current sleep issues under control. Meds usually do the job but right now, not on anything that works. I don't sleep until 4am and get up at 7-8am for a few days and then crash and sleep 10-12 hours one day. I hate it.

[SorryShaped]

Originally Posted by Leia78

I've never had normal sleep. Even in Air Force basic training when we had strict bed and wake times, I couldn't adjust. I just dealt with it.

Am trying to get current sleep issues under control. Meds usually do the job but right now, not on anything that works. I don't sleep until 4am and get up at 7-8am for a few days and then crash and sleep 10-12 hours one day. I hate it.

Sounds to me like you're a "sleep camel." I've tried that years ago when I worked construction up to 19 hours a day and it was very rough. I hope for you to get it worked out soon.

Consider "Sleep Apnea".

This is a condition where one never quite falls asleep. In fact, the body can wake several thousand times a night. Ask some one who might have been in a position to observe you about your sleep patter. One sign is snoring. Another is gasping occasionally for breath. Yet another is stopping breathing for short to even long periods of time. There are even more indicators.

There is a higher incidence of Sleep Apnea amongst the mentally ill than in the regular population.

See your family doctor. They can pre-screen you and refer you to a sleep clinic. The sleep clinic sends you home with a test kit (basically a small computer you strap to your chest), gathers and looks at the results, and makes a diagnosis based on your type of sleep. There are ways to alleviate some sleep issues like the use of something called a cpap machine - I get mine next week.

[Unrigged64072835]

I have a CPAP and didn't have any issues until this year. Sometimes I'll only sleep 5 hours, other times it's 10 hours. I think part of it is my husband is also waking up early, but he has muscle pain and usually goes back to sleep in about an hour, while I wake up and stay awake. I've also been having vivid dreams. Some of my meds can cause insomnia, but I didn't have any trouble until now.