And not psychosis. Or I mean is psychosis but is sleep related not sza. Really it is insane how much things change when I am getting a full amount of sleep and am taking medications to prevent my daytime sleepiness. My symptoms were worst when I was growing up because school didn’t accommodate my backwards circadian rhythm so I was almost always sleep deprived. Then in college when I could make my own schedule and sleep in suddenly almost all my symptoms were gone or minimal, EXCEPT in the summer time, when I had early morning classes, thus was sleep deprived again.
I ONLY seem to experience symptoms while sleepy nowadays. If I take my modafinil religiously, I do not get symptoms and can go days on end with not even a single voice or hallucination. Unfortunately it is so short acting, and I can’t take it through the night or past a certain time as it’s a stimulant and will keep me up, so when it wears off is when I experience symptoms. I NEED to discuss this with my doctor.
Yes you should. The symptoms you are having could be from several sources and a good general check up is a good place to start including complete blood studies. First things first. The results may direct further treatment as needed and can also rule out issues also.
Nonetheless, if one has schizoaffective disorder, this is not infrequently associated with lack of sleep. This lack of sleep will magnify the disorder. If anyone does not get enough sleep, then this can at some point become a psychosis.
Many of my symptoms are atypical I’ve been told. I don’t really have cognitive symptoms or social issues, and my negatives only come when I don’t take modafinil, meaning they are probably more related to sleepiness than actual negatives.
I’ve already done plenty of blood work and it’s always all normal.
It’s just weird that when I get proper sleep and take Modafinil I basically don’t get any symptoms at all. Modafinil is in no way an antipsychotic and I have not really been on a proper AP for ages now. In fact most of them don’t do a thing for me.
Not long enough (today is day 6) and not on a dose close to therapeutic.
The only symptom flare up I had in the past week was the one day I took less modafinil in the afternoon in an attempt to get to sleep earlier and a sleep attack hit me and I went to (try to) go nap.
stimulants in the morning and maybe sleep aids at cycling from one to the other as you develop tolerance
it takes a while to reset your schedule, do all the good stuff, like turning off the lights at night and looking at the sun during the day
cold showers get me pumped in the morning, ginsrng coffee is the bomb
maybe learn to manipulate macronutrients, like eating at the samd times daily, then eating something which calms you down (simple carbs milk) before bed. maybe something like a banana.
if everything isnt clockwork, maybe try and get it as close as you can
if that means taking time off work or other commitments, maybe consider that
vigorous physical exercise at the right times during the day, maybe increasing in intensity over time, maybe non weight bearing like swimming, cycling, rowing, elliptical, cycling from one to the other to avoid boredom as well as to continue the challenge
psychologically prepare for sleep, ritualize it and find a way to come to peace with your insomnia if aggressively struggling against it doesnt help
little things like listening to white noise or binaural beats at night can help you train yourself to fall asleep
adding audio or visual input to your bedtime routine
for me a dose of 100mg seroquel around 8pm once every week or so seems to help regulate it
I am not sure if hallucinations that only happen when sleepy are considered psychotic, but believing in demons molesting you, is a delusion, so it is considered a psychotic symptom.
I only have hallucinations when I am sleepy, but I don’t consider myself psychotic.
I am seeing a pdoc soon to see if my symptoms mean I have schizophrenia.
I have adhd inattentive type, and it shares some symptoms of schizophrenia disorganised type.
I have low serotonin and dopamine in my brain, which is the opposite to what most people with schizophrenia of bipolar have.
It will be difficult for the pdoc to come to a satisfactory conclusion.
The thing is I was reading this great book on sleep disorders and sleep called Sleepyhead which I think I’ve mentioned before, and when he is talking about sleep paralysis, he says there are some people who experience it who truly believe it is ghosts or demons or something doing it to them. Some people even believe it’s aliens. But they aren’t psychotic, that’s the experience they have through their hallucinations.
Only thing is, I am not paralyzed when I experience my hallucinations or the other associated psychosis things. Sleepy, but not paralyzed.