[vrba44070]

I'm on less meds & I'm getting adequate sleep & I'm doing much better now. In the past months I've had voices, visions, commands & paranoia & it wasn't a med change that fixed it- it was sleep that fixed it. Looking back all my episodes have occurred when I was sleep deprived. Has anyone else experienced this? I get fleeting visions from time to time, but they pass. They pass a lot quicker if I don't freak out about them.
I'm still on an antipsychotic, but I'm no longer on a mood stabilizer. I'm learning that less is sometimes more.

[spiritual_emergency]

vrba: Looking back all my episodes have occurred when I was sleep deprived. Has anyone else experienced this?

Sleep deprivation has been associated with psychotic states of consciousness...

When sleep deprivation becomes great enough, the effects mimic those of psychosis. The failure of the scientific world to recognize this is due to some extent to the folklore that has grown up around the sleepless marathon of high school student Randy Gardner in 1964. To gain an entry into the Guiness Book of World Records, he remained awake for 264 hours (11 days). Summaries of this case usually report that Gardner suffered no hallucinations, no paranoia or other negative mood changes, and that his mental, motor and sensory abilities were quite good throughout the entire episode. This conclusion is so widespread that it has now become a stock "fact" presented in virtually any psychology or psychiatry book that has a chapter on sleep.

This conclusion seems to be based on two items of information. The first was the observation that there were no obvious lasting physical or mental problems encountered by Gardner when he began to sleep again. The second was based upon observations of researcher William Dement (Dement, 1992), who interviewed Gardner on Day 10 of the experiment. He reported that he took Gardner to a restaurant and then played pinball with him, noting that Gardner played the game well and even won. Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross of the U.S. Navy Medical Neuropsychiatric Research Unit in San Diego, who was called in by Gardner's worried parents to monitor his condition, tells a quite different story (Ross, 1965). ...

In many respects Gardner's symptoms were similar to those experienced by a New York disk jockey, Peter Tripp, who endured a 200-hour sleepless marathon to raise money for the March of Dimes. During the course of his ordeal his thoughts became increasingly distorted and there were marked periods of irrationality. By the end of four days he could not successfully execute simple tests requiring focused attention. In addition, he began to have hallucinations and distorted visual perceptions. At one point Tripp became quite upset when he thought that the spots on a table were insects. He thought that there were spiders crawling around the booth and even once complained that they had spun cobwebs on his shoes.

He showed the same increasing moodiness and paranoia that Gardner did. On his last day, a neurologist was called to examine Tripp before sending him home. When Tripp looked up at this doctor in his dark, old-fashioned suit, he had the delusion that the doctor was really an undertaker who was about to bury him alive. Overtaken with fear, he let loose a scream and bolted for the door. Half-dressed, Tripp ran down the hall with doctors and psychologists in pursuit. He could no longer distinguish the difference between reality and nightmare.

This same pattern of mental deterioration that mimicks psychotic symptoms appears in several more systematic studies of sleep deprivation and extreme sleep debt. Thus, prolonged sleep deprivation does lead to the appearance of serious mental symptoms. In addition, even moderate amounts of sleep deprivation can lead to losses in mental efficiency that can threaten public and personal safety.

Source: Sleep Deprivation, Psychosis & Mental Efficiancy

You can find more information about Peter Tripp here: Peter Tripp+sleep deprivation.

During the peak of my own experience, I went a period of about ten days where I slept only minimally or not at all. Sleep deprivation has also played a role in the experiences of others I've known or spoken with.

I get fleeting visions from time to time, but they pass. They pass a lot quicker if I don't freak out about them.

If you're comfortable doing so, you might find it helpful to simply observe them (as you might a movie) without getting caught up in them. Later, you can review the events to see if they might reveal anything of significance.

I'm learning that less is sometimes more.

Glad to hear you are feeling better vrba. If less meds works for you, that's simply what works best for you.

~ Namaste

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[Tinaleigh]

I had a similar experience. As my meds were being lowered I noticed a huge change in my symptoms. What I noticed though was that keeping myself on a strict schedule (which included a bedtime and wake up time) minimized most of my symptoms. I still have visual and auditory hallucinations in the morning and evening whe I wake up and go to bed, but they don't last as long and are less disturbing. The schedule has given me a map or a list of directions for the day so that my mind won't get distracted with itself. It's wonderful! And I have my doctor to thank for trusting me that I would be ok on less meds.

TinaLeigh

[deliquesce]

i dont have schizophrenia, but i do get hallucinations. for me, they only happen when i am stressed, and typically when i am stress i am also not sleeping enough.

anti-psychotics do not work to stop the visions/voices (or, none of the ones i've tried so far), so now i just take some anti-anxiety pills and go to bed a bit earlier than usual. they usually go away within a week or two.

i also get the fleeting visions - for me, this is the first sign that i might be getting stressed and that i need to work extra hard to make sure my sleep stays stable and that i continue to eat properly etc. sometimes it progresses into more pervasive visions, but now that i've identified it, i can usually act to stop them from getting to that stage.

[FooZe]

Originally Posted by spiritual_emergency

Sleep deprivation has been associated with psychotic states of consciousness...

As far as I know I've never had schizophrenia. Early in my first year of college, though, I pulled an all-nighter that definitely put me into an altered state of consciousness.

After 30 hours or so without sleep, I left my last class and started to walk home in a daze. I think I may have been having some kind of out-of-body experience. At one point I stepped off a curb and was quite surprised to feel a jolt as my foot hit the street. I'm not sure what I'd been expecting -- maybe to float across the street or something.

I don't remember any particular after-effects, once I caught up on sleep a little.