I read Jill Bolte Taylor's book a couple weeks ago. I was so glad she talked about the importance of sleep in healing. I used to be mad at myself when I was in a depression and all I could do was sleep. I came to realize that my bipolar symptoms were manifest by too little sleep and as a result I slipped back into a depressed, confused, negative state of being.
When I was convinced that bipolar was a brain disorder (neurological, physiological) and that sleep was for healing, then I began to heal properly. What a difference a healthy body and mind make in day to day life.
I have designed my life to contain lots of quiet time. When I'm tired, I sleep. I had to hear that from my therapist so many times...listen to your body...utilize the stress relief, relaxing techniques...sleep when you're tired. I had to relearn how to sleep after existing on 3 or 4 hours a night (or less) for 3+ years.
When I did, I could function so much better.
I sometimes need naps during the day, but now that I'm sleeping a consistent 6 1/2-7 1/2 hours a night, I don't need them like I used to.
I walked away from lots of leadership roles in my life. I had to determine what was most important to me...the prestige and recognition of doing for others (church, community, friends) or my health and family relationships. I chose my health. I am so much happier because I really am who I was created to be. I don't have to please others. I please myself and thus am healthier to do for others. I'm able to stay focused (most of the time) and do what I do with my whole heart. I previously was giving myself away in small chunks and had nothing left for the most important things...me and my family.
So, yes, sleep heals and regenerates and is SO IMPORTANT to my continued recovery.
Hi John,
First, I want to thank you for your hard work to keep us informed. I've been following your work but I don't think I've ever posted.
Like you, after a week of sensory overload from meetings, gatherings with family and friends, noise, lights, non-stop activity and conversations, my brain is ready to start short circuiting. My routine was non-existent. Using the skills I've learned, I've still managed to keep functioning quite well. I've always tried to avoid taking naps because of my difficulty with sleeping at night. Perhaps I should rethink that strategy and allow myself short naps during the day. Today I took a short nap and my head cleared a little. I usually have one full three to 5 day cycle every 2 weeks. Sometimes, weeks like these increase the intensity and length of my cycles. Although I manage well, perhaps naps would help my weary brain get over the pummeling it took faster. Being so brain weary, maybe naps won't affect my sleep at this time. If sleep at night does become more difficult I'll have to reassess the worth of a nap.
I have a question for you, John, and perhaps for your readers. I am a super fast cycler. I used to cycle 2 or 3 times a day about 3 days a week, sometimes more. I am treatment resistant. My psychiatrist and I have tried numerous drugs in various combinations and all we could manage was to slow the cycles down to a 3 to 5 day full cycle every 2 weeks. I'm okay with that--I've learned other tools to make the swings manageable and I live a great and fulfilled life.
I am hypersensitive to noise, flourescent lighting (it plays havoc with spacial perception), chemicals including medication, crowds, lots of activity or motion around me, etc. Being hypersensitive to medications is part of what has created a problem for my psychiatrist and me concerning my treatment, thus the need for me to learn skills to manage. I've met another woman who experiences bipolar almost exactly the same way I do--it's uncanny. She is hypersensitive to the same things. Has anyone looked into this? My curiosity is piqued.
My sleep is very erratic. But my crazy sleep schedule seems to make sense for my body. I’m able to subsist on very little sleep for the most part. No matter what I do, I can’t make myself sleep when I’m not tired. So I’ve learned to just go with it. Eventually I will crash. And when I do, I sleep. Last week I slept for almost 24hrs straight. I use this ZEO wireless headband to monitor my sleep. I only woke 5x, for 18min of awake time total in 24hrs. Two hours were deep sleep (I average 30min for a regular 8hr rest). Three hours were REM sleep. The rest was light sleep. It was like my body shutdown for a full day to recuperate. I used to fight the urge to oversleep after a crash. I’d try to truncate my sleeping schedule with alarms and buzzers and whatever else I could do to keep myself from sleeping too much. It would just mess me up more. I finally came to terms with the fact my body runs differently than the average Joe. It seems to have different requirements. And I eventually stopped trying to force my body to function according to a typical standard. I realized I don’t need to reconcile my sleeping needs with everyone else. Sometimes my body only requires 4hrs of sleep a night to sustain me. Sometimes it needs a great deal more. So I try to listen to my body’s needs and schedule my sleep accordingly.
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I have always used sleep as a asjunct therapy to my meds and psyotherapy. It brings me both out of depresion and out of mania. Sometimes I use sleep depreviation just to shortcircuit a depression. (Not offen) I use my deams to inform my waking life of my issues with my actual diagnois often dreaming of how my dx affects my relatioships. Work always leaves me drained. Working in the enviorment I do is suppose to be the 2nd most stressful job available anywhere. This morning I got one of those stupid eye twitches from too much stress. Right now it's been 3 hours since I got off work and I still can't calm down. And right now I'm out of that 2 month depression and into a manic cycle which for once I welcome because the Depression almost sent me to the hospital. So I do use sleep when it is availble to me. It's jjust not available to me today.