Need sleep

I had a med change a few days ago to hopefully end my months-long depressive episode. My Effexor, lamictal and lithium were all increased. My mood has already turned around quite a bit, but at the same time I'm getting about 3-4 hours of broken sleep each night. I'm incredibly sleep deprived, nothing is helping to shut my brain down enough to get good sleep. I'm physically and painfully exhausted but I just can't sleep.

I'm worried my mood is flipping in the other direction because of this. I'm not feeling euphoric or anything right now but my depression is most definitely abating. It's just this whole sleep thing that has me worried. I'm thinking of calling into partial and skipping today just so I can have enough sleep for my night shift which will make me stay up most of the night again. This isn't sustainable and I fear for my long-term stability if I can't get some good sleep fast.

I am so sorry you are struggling with your sleep. I have been there, a lot. I just recently have come through about a three-month period of completely segmented sleep, where I could only get at very most 3 1/2 hours or so at a time. It is still not perfect, but last night, I slept 7 hours from 2 to a little after 9. Miracle. It will get better for you. It will. Don't give up.

The question for us always, always, is whether this is some kind of pre-mania thing or just the typical crappy sleep of bipolar folks. It is a bit odd to be highly depressed and not sleeping a lot, as you know. So, that makes me wonder whether you are doing a slight flip over into the other pole. Or not. Maybe it's just bad sleep.

Have you made many med moves to address this? I made a bunch. None of them worked--including thorazine. It was like drinking water. Complete joke. It is basically impossible to sedate my brain at this point in my illness. Not possible. We finally added a big dose of Depakote and that did it. It does not sedate me, but it has allowed me to sleep for some reason. Probably mania. So, now I am on both lithium and Depakote, along with all the others.

So, maybe talk to the pdoc and see about adding something, even if for just a short while. Lots of people here benefit from fairly low doses of Seroquel--maybe that could help.

Sedning you strength!! Hang in there!!!!

I like what bpcyclist posted about Seroquel. I'm not a huge fan of Seroquel for myself, except that at a low dose (no more than 25mg) it made me sleep like nothing else ever has.

My pdoc still has me on Seroquel 150 for sleep, supposedly. I can sleep at 100 just fine. Seems like 25 wouldn't do much, though. Of course, 150 isn't a lot when you've been up to 800-something when manic.

I had my effexor, lamictal and lithium increased last week. This is fairly recent.

I don't feel like I'm switching into mania, I really feel like I'm missing the sleep. I'm exhausted because I'm waking up early in the morning before I can get enough sleep so I can go to PHP. I've got a very busy day today and I'm still sleep deprived.

I thought lack of sleep causes mania, but I guess that's not always the case, or maybe I'm misdiagnosed.

Lack of sleep can certainly unmask mania, I don't think anyone doubts that. So stay on it.

It will turn around. Hang in there. I did not think mine would ever get better with this last episode, but it ultimately did. Don't give up!!

i'm 73 yr. old female retired; since mid-30's, i've always had a diagnosis of hypomania with no depression; over the years sleep has become my biggest issue; have little stressors in my life: wonderful husband, work out 5x week, great pre-sleep preparations, etc. yet if i don't get a full 8 hrs., i'm totally debilitated and must stay in bed next day to catch up for lost sleep. finally found a combination which works and i'm merely posting what works 99% of the time for me: 25mg. seroquel, 15 mg. temazepam and 100 or 200 mg. progesterone. the progesterone gives me the most vivid dreams. do i wake up in a drug fog? absolutely, but i don't have children or a job so i drink 2 cups of coffee working on computer and then `come alive' and head over to the health club to work out. good luck in finding what works for you.