[Sindy]

Hi, I’m new here. I have bipolar 2. My biggest problems right now are lack of sleep, anxiety, grinding my teeth, and pulling out my eyelashes.
I’ve been having many nights of no sleep. My mind is all buzzy. The most I’be gone without sleep was three days. I hope that doesn’t happen again because I was a total mess.

[CANDC]

Hi @Sindy welcome to MSF. I am sorry you are not able to sleep sometimes. That must be rough to go through.

My friend has taken meds that are prescribed specifically for them and one of the psych meds helps them sleep better. Their symptoms are a lot less when they sleep well. Have you considered talking to a psychiatrist about your sleep problem and they can evaluate you for med therapy that could keep your moods more stable?

@CANDC

[Sindy]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I am going to talk to my psychiatrist tomorrow. He did adjust one of my meds a couple of weeks ago to see if that would help me sleep. Unfortunately it hasn’t really helped. I have taken ambien before, but that stuff scares me. I do weird things in my sleep while I am on it and also get addicted to it. Hopefully there is something else he can prescribe me because this is getting really old.

[Fuzzybear]

[Soupe du jour]

Welcome, Sindy!

Anxiety alone can be keeping you up. When that's the case for me, I turn to helpful coping tools. My sound machine can often work wonders. It soothes and distracts me from racing thoughts. Breathing techniques, foods like yogurt, specific STOP and "nothingness" CBT tools are also helpful.

I experienced years of intermittent teeth grinding in the past. It affected my top and bottom front teeth and incisors, causing the need for two root canals, plus they look bad. In December I need to get fillings to combat the wear. It is serious! In my case it was daytime bruxism, not nightime. I think even bipolar meds, themselves, can be contributing factors. Too few psychiatrists take this seriously. I'd imagine ditto for hair pulling. Really press your doc on this and learn and practice coping skills. They help. I used to discount them, but now I don't.

[Crazy Hitch]

Hi @Sindy! I think you’ve received great advice from the above posters so I don’t really have anything to add besides to say WELCOME!

[Nammu]

Originally Posted by Sindy

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I am going to talk to my psychiatrist tomorrow. He did adjust one of my meds a couple of weeks ago to see if that would help me sleep. Unfortunately it hasn’t really helped. I have taken ambien before, but that stuff scares me. I do weird things in my sleep while I am on it and also get addicted to it. Hopefully there is something else he can prescribe me because this is getting really old.

I do take ambian but have no issues with it except that it doesn’t keep me asleep. My pdoc recently recently added gabapentin. Though I looked it up and it said nothing about sleep it has worked wonders. The ambian helps me fall asleep but the gabapentin ( a low dose, just 300mg) helps me stay asleep! I’m sleeping better than I have in years. I hope you find something that helps.

Welcome

[CANDC]

Sindy any updates from your talk with the psychiatrist?

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Originally Posted by Nammu

I do take ambian but have no issues with it except that it doesn’t keep me asleep. My pdoc recently recently added gabapentin. Though I looked it up and it said nothing about sleep it has worked wonders. The ambian helps me fall asleep but the gabapentin ( a low dose, just 300mg) helps me stay asleep! I’m sleeping better than I have in years. I hope you find something that helps.

Welcome

At Stanford medicine a resident told me in 2017 that Gabapentin improves sleep architecture.

[Moose72]

I have the same problem sometimes. I simply don’t sleep all night. I eventually watch Netflix and SOMEtimes I can nap in the afternoon.