Posted by Ted on January 9, 2001, at 15:42:40
In reply to Re: sleep for bipolars, posted by super on January 9, 2001, at 12:44:08
Hi super,
In answer to your questions:
Re: Mood stabilizer, I *think* mine (depakote) is the right dose, and my blood tests show it to be in the exact middle of the theraputic range, but I still have sleep difficulties. I think that if I raised my depakote level, I would be very sleepy during the day.
Re: Me:
1. Yes, I still go to sleep early on weekends. I *try* to keep the same schedule continuously, every night. Now, I will stay up late some nights, sometimes as late as midnight, but I *always* pay a price for it in the coming days & nights. After staying up till midnight one night I usually have to do the ambien+lorazepam trick and *really* catch up the next night or else I will really get sick.
It doesn't matter what time you go to bed; what matters is how much sleep you get, and your sleep will be best when your schedule is constant.
2. Yes -- ambien does not knock me out totally. It's not like being intoxicated. I can get up in the middle of the night and be relatively lucid. The neat thing is that when I get back to bed, I go right back to sleep. BTW: **ONLY** take ambien right before bedtime, and *never* do anything like driving within 6-7 hours of taking it.
3. I set boundaries by using earplugs. My wife can watch TV and my son can bang around, but I usually still get to sleep.
4. About your girlfriend calling, that could be a problem. You have several choices, depending on what you want to do. You can just go to bed a little early so that a call and conversation won't take much from the total sleep, or you can just get awakened when she calls and put up with it. You can have her call *later* at night, so you can get some good, continuous sleep before she interrupts you -- something like 1-2am. Then you can go back to sleep until time to get up.
Remember: you just need regular sleep. How you get it is up to you.
Take care,
Ted
poster:Ted
thread:3805
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010105/msgs/3810.html