Hello ladies, gents, and the gender queer community,
Are your sleeping habits persistent night after night? Do you tend to fall asleep at the same time every night and wake up at the same time as well?
If one is not experiencing a routine sleeping habit, is this something “common” in individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (without experiencing mania)?
As an example: I am awake for two days, I sleep 45 minutes, am awake for another couple of days, then sleep for nine plus hours. I probably get around ten hours of sleep a week.
I am not affected by this lack of sleep. I have so much energy, my case manager calls me manic, am I? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Important question: How do you fix an erratic sleeping pattern? Do you just force yourself to lay in bed, hoping for sleep? Do you have to run hours every day to tire yourself out? What actions have helped you get back on track with a regular sleeping schedule?
Thank you for reading and any input, have a wonderful day!
Hey @YakDip - My sleep patterns are extremely erratic - One night I will go to bed at 11pm and get 7 hours of sleep - the following night, I will crash on the couch, nap for 3 or 4 hours get up at 2 am and dont fall asleep afterwards.
Everyday is different when it comes to my sleep habits.
I do believe its a big time Bipolar thing, even when not experiencing mania or depression.
Its also a SZ thing I am sure
Have you ever thought it was necessary or have you ever tried to correct your sleeping habits into a more steady pattern? Were you successful if you have tried?
I have a hard time controlling my sleep patterns - for me personally it is almost impossible.
I have tried numerous times with no success.
When I was on Seroquel XR - it made my sleep patterns more normal, but I had to get off the drug because it was spiking my blood glucose levels too high and also messed with my thyroid too much.
it such an a nuisance , i think its our biological time clock that is screwed. when the clocks rolled back 1 hour i was totally messed up with sleep for about 3 weeks,
often i can be confused about the time, like 3pm may feel like 9 am to me , its just odd
These past three weeks of very light duty have put my sleep schedule all over the place.
Work will hopefully pick up a little more this month and it will help me stay on schedule.
Plus… my job is pretty physical. So I get tired enough to sleep. But with none of that… I’ve been sitting in bed at 10:00 p.m. but not getting any sleep for hours.
I’m exhausted physically, yet I’m so alert mentally, thoughts and thoughts, I just want sleep!!! I’m all riled up from the visit with the case manager earlier today. I don’t know why but I’m feeling so trapped. All this is running around my head. I was telling her we needed to break this relationship about her being the professional and me being the unprofessional. We needed to relocate to Alaska, you know, as friends. And I could send her funny pictures on her phone, if I got a phone myself. I told her about the people in my house who aren’t welcome, how they watch you here, record everything. How it feels like you’re being put in restraints when you lay down in bed. How I was trying to drive to Florida to see my Grandma, but ended up driving North instead of South, arriving at a town three hours away from home, realized then I was going North. Had to turn around. Why? Okay, why is she trying to call my mom? Why is she asking me if I had cut myself? I don’t want to tell her. She is saying I need ativan. A controlled substance?! Why do I need that? Okay, why is she saying mania, this and that, symptom this and symptom that. Has she not seen a manic person before? I can drive. I drove to the appointment. I need sleep! How do I get it? How to clear thoughts and voices out of mind? This is just what is circulating around the brain. I know friends, you said you didn’t know what has worked for you, but did you eventually get sleep? How long did you go without it? Help? Advice? Thank you for reading this, thank you.
Thank you bridgecomet for this suggestion, I haven’t thought of trying over the counter meds. I’ll give that a go tomorrow night if I can’t sleep tonight. Not taking any meds currently, so I guess I should be fine to take it. Thank you for this thought! Don’t know why I didn’t think of a non-habit forming night time med. Cool, thanks!
I just woke up-again. Woke up earlier around? 12PM and drank a cup of coffee, then went back to bed.
Looking at any of the clocks in our house don’t help, they all have different times on them. Sometimes I just look outside to see if I can figure out what time it is. All the batteries in them and the flashlights have corroded, bought new ones and the same thing happened. Have had ove 30+ flashlights and well over 70+ batteries in the last year corrode.
What gives here?
Just start with one. They take about an hour to hit, but they knock me out-just one. Breaks a bad sleep cycle. I don`t know if you have a high tolerance for such things-so be careful!
