Can't sleep at night

Alright, I know some of you guys are docs, and it seems that there are some fellow night owls around here, so I feel that this might not be the worst place to ask this.

I have trouble sleeping at night. I've been awake since 7PM on Saturday, which means that I've been awake for 32 hours. I slept about 20 hours, which killed my Saturday completely. Prior to that, I was awake for 42 hours.

My main issue seems to be that I can't fall asleep at night. As soon as the sun goes down, I'm awake. It happens every night, and it has for years. My psych has prescribed everything from mild to heavy sleeping pills, Klonipin, and just about every other sleep aid possible. I just can't get a good night of sleep.

For full disclosure's sake, I have bipolar disorder, diagnosed about 11 years ago. For the life of me, I can't remember a time that I've been able to sleep well at night. If I do manage to fall asleep, I wake up around this time, unless I've been awake for more than a day.

What gives? Unfortunately, this is a contributing factor in me holding a scheduled job. It always has. The only job I've not had an issue with allowed me to stumble in at about 9AM, open shop at 9:30, and just babysit computers as I waited for Windoze to install. The longest I've held a job was 2 and a half years, and I only managed that due to FMLA.

I currently lack health insurance. Until my wife finds employment that has that perk, I doubt I will. We can't afford to pay out of pocket, either. Frankly, I'm too proud to even apply for disability or even medicaid. So for now, going to the doc is somewhat out of the question.

Now, I do know that future employers may Google my name, and this thread may come up in their search, but I also feel that this might be the best way for me to get on the right track and find out what I need to do to actually get some sleep and become something more than the guy that works odd jobs to keep his head above water.

Some things that do help marginally are exercise and cutting caffeine. Doing both only helps marginally, and might allow me to get a restful night of sleep every once in a while.

Any suggestions are helpful, but I'd really rather not have to fill my body with synthesized compounds just to sleep.

You listed exercise,when are you doing that? That can contribute to sleeplessness if it anywhere close to bedtime. That is something that is better for people that are having problems staying awake or feeling tired. Or just exercise when you wake up the same time everyday. You will set your internal clock to wake up at the same time by itself and will have more energy throughout your day.

The next thing I would try to do is reduce stress in your daily life. That is hard to do sometimes but anything from yoga to walks or jogging might help that.

I used to not sleep much, and I ended up getting a second full time job at a gas station 3rd shift. After year of 80+ hour work weeks I had some extra cash and had the best sleep ever when I had the chance Your body really only need like 3-4hours a day of sleep and you can break it up into cat naps 1 1/2 hours here and another 1 1/2 there for example.

I can't just cat nap, though. When I actually get good and asleep, nothing can wake me, except it being night.

One thing I did leave out that I just remembered is that my sleeplessness has gotten FAR worse since we had our break in back in February. Life has been a string of stress-induced depression since then. While this may be a contributing factor, I highly doubt it's the root cause since this has been going on for upwards of half of my life.

Make sure the diagnosis is correct (seems to be popular these days) and get on the proper meds (most likely lithium & seroquel). It will help regulate things, but part of the deal is managing around it. Oh, and go for the disability - you are making yourself suffer needlessly. Bipolar is an automatic qualifying condition - you/we pay into those benefits for exactly this type of thing. Get the access to insurance and disability payments (they will help - seroquel isn't cheap) and save yourself and your family the pain and hardship of going out of pocket. Perhaps in the meantime, it provides enough stability/stress relief for you to work out a way to make a living that fits some of the unpredictability of dealing with a bipolar disorder diagnosis.

I'm not sure how it plays with the bi-polar thing, but Melatonin is a good supplement and sleep aid. It helps in setting circadian rhythm.

As a taxpayer, if some of my money went to help keep you regulated on medication so you could hold down a job, I'd be pretty happy. A person taking government assistance who actually needs it? Awesome. As an insomnia sufferer however, if medication lead to a cure for not sleeping, I'd cheer in the streets! Not sleeping sucks. Hard.

For me, it was a lifestyle change that let me sleep. No caffeine after 12pm, and generally try to reduce or eliminate it overall. Wind down in a darkened, quiet environment before sleeping and stay off the computer/iPad/iPhone etc. No bright screens! Loose weight, exercise and get stuff done.

That last one was the real key. If I had something unfinished at the end of the day, I would turn it over in my mind endlessly. Or if I really wanted to do something and couldn't get to it, I would not sleep and end up working on it until 4am. Or if I was really busy at work and couldn't get caught up. Or if I was waiting to hear about a promotion. Or a test result. Or whatever. The solution was to pick something that I could achieve, and finish it that day. Or break a large project into well-defined steps, and achieve one step that day. Or make a list and a plan and a schedule to put my mind at ease.

You said you have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, how long have you been in this sleepless state? How many of these "episodes" have you had in the past year? I just wonder if your levels are out of whack and aren't being controlled effectively.

10pm nookie. Hopefully that will get you relaxed and sleepy. If it doesn't... at least you're getting some nookie.

Have your doc refer you to a sleep specialist asap. Sleep deprivation is nothing to toy with. You may fall asleep at the wheel, hurt yourself or others operating equipment... but sleep deprivation will hurt your health, mainly stress your heart.

If you truly are a night owl try a midnight job, once you get used to it (midnight is thought upside down by the majority ) it's fine. I hated working daylight for 25 years, once I had midnight figured out I wondered why I didn't switch years ago, if I ever get forced back to daylight I'll prollly walk...pfft

I second the idea of seeing a sleep specialist. I couldn't get a good nights sleep for years. I would go t sleep but would wake up evry hour or so.

After seeing a sleep specilaist I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. They put me on a Bi-Pap machine and I am now sleeping better than I had in 40 years.

Perhaps a night job would suit you. Are you capable of sleeping during the day?

I keep a short list of things I am thankful for.
High on that list is that I sleep well. I lived with a girl for 5 years who did not and I understand your pain/frustration.
Also but not only on that list is thanks for not having knocked anyone up in highschool (its can make life a long, hard road) and the thanks that I was not an addicted smoker (no one stands out in the freezing cold smoking 'cause they really want to.)

I had a friend who was very much in your condition, including the bipolar diagnosis. It ended up not being actual bipolar disorder, but a closely related syndrome related to disrupted circadian rhythms. Unfortunately the syndrome's actual name escapes me at the moment.

Three things really helped him:

1) no caffeine at all 2) melatonin supplements 3) a dawn simulator.

The last one was basically a bright light on a timed dimmer in his bedroom, so that it brought the light up slowly like dawn, at the appropriate time. Before that, he would stumble in to work any time between 10:00a and 1:00p, then work until 10:00 at night, and go to sleep somewhere around 2:00-3:00a. The dawn simulator and melatonin really helped get his rhythms reestablished at an appropriate position on the clock. It was not a perfect solution and he was still somewhat bipolar, but it made a big difference in his quality of life.

Good luck to you, man.

fasted58 wrote: If you truly are a night owl try a midnight job, once you get used to it (midnight is thought upside down by the majority ) it's fine. I hated working daylight for 25 years, once I had midnight figured out I wondered why I didn't switch years ago, if I ever get forced back to daylight I'll prollly walk...pfft

I'm really curious, what do you mean by "midnight is thought upside down?" (Not knocking or doubting you at all, it just really caught my eye and I wanted to figure out what you meant.)

I think he means that most of society is geared around the idea that we do awake things during daylight and sleep at night. If your a night worker your thought to be opossite the "normal" daytime(sunup) work/awake nightime(sundown) sleep schedule.

I've had life-long insomnia and melatonin has really helped. Hope you decide to see a specialist.

Another vote for melatonin, from someone who's seen more than her share of sleepless nights.

Margie

I do not sleep well, and have spent time at the local sleep clinic. Diagnosed with a mild enough case of sleep apnea to not bother doing anything about it. But what really keeps me awake is a restless mind - always thinking.

What worked really well for shutting my brain down is to journal what I'm thinking. Even if this is a "Dear Diary" or a hate mail that never gets sent, writing it down makes your brain think it's been dealt with. Then it lets it go. You'll notice that when you brain keeps thinking about something, it goes over it and over it and over it and over it. Journaling puts it to rest.

NO internet in the evening. The light from the screen, and the "thrill of the hunt" for information will keep you awake.

Start shutting lights down around the house to make it dark.

MAINTAIN a standard wake-up time, and GET UP when it comes. Sleeping until whenever does not set your sleep clock.

Good luck.

While my diagnosis hasn't been reevaluated in about 8 years, it has been evaluated by 2 psychs, once when I was 14, before bipolar was a catch-all, and then again when I was 17 or 18. Then again, I fired my last psych because I was just getting nothing but trial and error when it came to meds.

I've been on lithobid, it makes me feel lethargic like crazy. I haven't found a sleeping pill yet, outside of meletonin, that allows me to wake up in the morning. Serequel made me sleep for nearly 3 days straight. Ambien is similar.

I'm going to look into the dawn simulator. The only time I can get decent sleep, oddly enough, is outside. I can at least wake up with the sun when I'm camping.

I know my body well enough to know when I'm incapable of driving. I have no problem calling my wife or a friend to get me home when I don't feel comfortable getting myself home.

In the past year, I've had at least 4 or 5 long days a month. It's so common that I've learned to deal with it, at least occasionally. This episode is one of the worst I've had in a while, because it's lasted at least 2 weeks. I can't remember the last time I got sleep that was restful and was awake for a normal amount of time.

Is it perhaps possible that my body simply can't comprehend time? Even when I'm awake, I have a hard time distinguishing a 5 minute period from and hour period. Seriously, I'm like a dog in this aspect.

Be careful with your research and get advice from a Dr.

Sunlamps for SAD can trigger manic episodes if you're bipolar.

spnx wrote: Be careful with your research and get advice from a Dr.

I will most definitely repeat this statement. I hope things work out for you!

In reply to SkinnyG:

What you said about journalen works for me sort of, I write letters or email people just about how things with my family are. Or else if I have a lot of work to get done I make a list and carry it around, and cross things off as I get them done. Sometimes this takes days or weeks to actually get the things on the list done but it keeps the "I have to hurry and get this done" from circling in my head.

Another thing with sleeplessness is you might want to get a check up from your regular doctor. Problems with sleeping can also come from physical health problems.

And if you are sleeping well outside you might try putting a tent up in the back yard, or sleeping on the front porch or something. But if you are doing better sleeping when on a vacation/camping that defiantly sounds like a daily schedule and stress problem. Your brain resets a lot of things when on vacation. They say that vacations are the best time to break bad (like smoking) habits for this reason.

Well, I have had 2 good nights of sleep in a row. This hasn't happened in months. Changes I've made were easy, seriously, but were things that I haven't been successful with in the past, such as setting short term goals for my long term projects. Another thing that helped immensely was reminding myself over and over that it doesn't have to be finished now, it can wait. Melatonin has helped me get to sleep, but I'm still having issues staying asleep. I think a sleep study is in order for that.

My biggest issue is that I seem to be hung over. I haven't consumed alcohol in weeks, so it's certainly not from the alcohol, but I do suspect it's from having to take a sleep aid. I'm hoping in a couple of weeks I can go off of the melatonin and still be able to sleep when I need to.

Thus far, I do still have a hard time forcing myself to bed. My family typically isn't in bed until well after 2AM. This certainly doesn't help me, and we've had a discussion about keeping noise levels down after I go to bed. We'll see how this part plays out.

Stress has always been an issue for me. I seriously stress out over small stuff. I also take it personally when I'm unable to fix something, even if it was something I only had a slim chance at fixing, like when I recap a motherboard or can't get a car running well. It especially bothers me working on my Honda, because I'm supposed to be one of the gurus for that generation of Accord.

Anyway, this is, of course, something that's going to take time to sort out. I think if I can get it sorted and it STAY sorted, I'll have a far better quality of life. The issue is keeping it in check.

Thanks for all of the help everyone here has offered. I really appreciated it.

Derick - Did you get the email I sent you? I sent it to the gmail address I have for you.