Is it fact that we take antipsychotics which lowers dopamine, which increases sleep duration? How do we mitigate this?
Or maybe because we eat so much carbs because of the appetite increasing effects of the drugs? So would going low carb be a solution?
Yeah the meds are sedating. They are better targetters than the original Thorazine. That was a brutal drug.
Lo carb will probably help your waistline but I doubt it would affect your sleep. Those sort of diets you pay a price for anyways…well most diets.
There’s drugs out there like provigil. Can’t get it out here and I hear it’s been abused over in the states so harder to get. My biggest problem is sleeping 9-10 hours a day and that is a deal breaker for me working. No easy answers!
It could be for a number of reasons. Medication, diet, (lack of) exercise, negative symptoms.
For me I think the reason why I sleep for hours and can never seem to get up early is because I’m depressed.
Because I’m depressed I can’t eat properly or eat enough nutritious foods, and I don’t get enough exercise or drink water.
I also don’t get enough fresh air and sunshine that would probably make me less depressed.
I have trouble falling asleep so the later I do fall asleep the later I sleep in.
Also I’m on somewhat sedating medication.
All in all it’s a vicious cycle.
I only sleep like 5 hours on a really good night. It’s usually closer to 3. Does that mean I don’t have sz?
I’m the same. But then about once a week I crash for hours. I just started s new medication that slowly seems to be improving it.
I sleep about 12hrs a day. Trouble is its the wrong way round, im always asleep by 3pm and always up from 1am in the morning. Turned into a bit of a night owl lately.
Naw, I think it’s more about an imbalance of either undersleep or oversleep. Neither is good for you.
I also have problems sleeping. I either get 0 hours of sleep or 16. Once I slept for over 24 hours. If I skip sleeping for too many nights my psychosis gets terrible. But if I miss a night of sleep I get somewhat manic and it’s hard for me to sleep after, so usually I need some sort of medication to help me fall asleep again.
It’s definitely because of medication. I think that if the sz medication we take does not suit us very well it will definitely increases the sleep duration. It makes us drowsy and also sleeping late and getting up late. If the medication suits us it won’t affect our sleep duration much. Also we can adopt a fixed schedule, that is sleeping at a fixed time and getting up at a fixed time.
Who says the normal folks don’t sleep a lot too? We probably don’t see them as often as them other “A-Type” folks who work stupid long hours and can’t ever sit still for 5 minutes.
I’ve always slept closer to 10 hours a day, even before being Dx’d, and when the depression hits, it’s more like 20 hours a day.
I sleep for at least 12 hrs a day but my issue is not wanting to wake up because my dreams are so engaging… but once I finally get outta dream state I’t takes me mins to be ready for the day…
So true. My husband sleeps 12 hours at night and wants a nap or two. My friend is the same way. Meanwhile I take high doses of benzos just so I can maybe get 5 hours a night.
I usually only get about 4 to 6 hours of sleep a night. Anything longer than that can be almost unbearable for me. Nightmares all night and such. Watching my family and myself get murdered by my hallucinations over and over in my sleep is basically just as damaging to me as not sleeping at all. But once I get overtired I can crash for a good 10 hours of restful sleep. I am however unmedicated. So I’d say that SZ effects everyone’s sleep differently. I know somebody who says that’s the only time she can actually relax. Mixed signals all round. Lol
I sleep 12 to 14hrs a day. It makes me so sad 
The benzos might have lost their effect by now. After a few years of me being on them it was only a physical dependence. I was getting no benefit at all. So have been coming off that and noticed no difference with gradual withdrawal.
I sleep for about 12 hours and I can’t stand up in the morning…
I sleep a shiton and I’m always tired because of Clozaril. Before APs, I had chronic insomnia and barely slept; I think it was due to my Anorexia and then bipolar disorder (now I’m SZA).
I mean in my case I honestly think I have some sort of mutation that results in me needing more sleep than normal for normal brain function. But society never allowed that so I became chronically sleep deprived without knowing it which led to paranoia, hallucinations, etc other symptoms which mimic psychosis but were really signs of sleep deprivation all along. Once I began to get more sleep my psychosis became greatly reduced. Once I began to get a LOT of sleep and just let myself wake up without an alarm my psychotic symptoms pretty much disappeared entirely.
I wonder how many others are the same. Sleep deprivation has serious consequences.
I agree its the meds but also our brains need more rest to rejuvenate. One of my counselors sleeps for ten hours a night. So some people just need more rest
I sleep about 9 hours a day.
Since I was a toddler I’ve always had trouble sleeping. When I was a teenager and young adult I slept very little. I still sleep less than other adults I talk with… I never sleep “through the night” and total time spent sleeping/trying to sleep never exceeds about seven hours. On my days off of work it’s not unusual for me to “wake” and get up for the day anywhere from 3:00am to 4:30am. On work days my alarm is set for 5:00am and it rarely has to go off… I don’t especially like sleeping and I don’t sleep excessively.