Does this sound like sleep disturbance?

I do something really stupid when I'm starting to get manic. I set alarms for all sorts of weird hours, like 3am, thinking I'll get up and be productive. The thing is I won't actually wake up, but I'll sleep lightly as I'm hitting snooze for hours.

Last night I set my alarm for 6am even though I don't really need to be up until 8am. 6am might sound fairly normal but I went to bed around 2am. It's going to be a struggle to not set my alarm for even earlier tomorrow because I just feel so ecstatic to be awake.

Does this sound like sleep disturbance? Fortunately I'm seeing my pdoc on Monday so I won't have to wait long before reporting this.

I don't see this as an actual sleep disturbance necessarily, but it is a forced deliberate disturbance of your sleep.

You wrote "The thing is I won't actually wake up, but I'll sleep lightly as I'm hitting snooze for hours."

The above sounds like you could sleep if you let yourself, but the action of setting the alarm to wake yourself up seems like you want to be awake for some reason, even if waking up early wouldn't be what you'd naturally do.

Are you really getting manic? Or are you wishing you were manic and wishing you could somehow make yourself manic by disrupting your sleep? If the answer to the latter question is "yes", beware that disrupting your sleep deliberately can have the opposite effect than perhaps what one wants. Sleeping less does in fact sometimes cause depression despite the view that it only causes mania. Again, if the latter is "yes", talk to your doctor or try to self analyze why you really are playing with your sleep so much.

My suggestion would be to set your alarm for 7:45 am and see if you can get a longer night's sleep. Don't set your alarm for 3 am unless you have a 5:30 am flight somewhere. If you allow yourself a normal night's sleep but wake up without an alarm after only a few hours sleep, then I'd think you have a sleep disturbance, which may or may not be related to mania.

I'm definitely not trying to make myself manic, nor do I wish for mania. I actually don't think it's possible to make myself manic even if I did want that. I just notice that I have a tendency to do this when I am on the road to mania.

If this is a personal warning sign a impending mania, it’s really important that you heed it. I would try to force yourself to reset the alarms to the time you need to get up. If you’re still getting enough sleep then I would wait until you see your doctor and talk to him or her about it. If you’ve noticed any behaviours that help you when you’re becoming manic, then I would employ them. Please take care of yourself and keep us updated.