Bipolar Insomnia

Bipolar Insomnia

Mental illness is often a leading cause for sleeplessness for those who have been diagnosed with a mental illness. For individuals with bipolar disorder sleep can be a major problem. In some cases without medical intervention people who suffer from this disease can be sleepless for days. For general practitioners, diagnosing a sleep disorder may not include consideration of bipolar disorder. This is particularly true in situations where medical history does not include the diagnosis for this disease or when a patient does not self-identify as being bipolar.

Bipolar disorder is estimated to affect from 2% to 7% of the people in the United States. It is further estimated that almost 10,000,000 people will develop the illness at some point during their lives. Bipolar disorder is often misdiagnosed because it can be confused with other diseases. Often people with mental illnesses have more than one diagnosable disease. For instance, if you are bipolar it is highly likely that you will have substance abuse issues, high-risk sexual behaviors, or other symptoms. Sometimes these symptoms can be very hard to differentiate. If you have sleep problems and are bipolar make sure that you tell your doctor. It will help significantly. Keeping your doctor informed can help you to find relief from symptoms sooner. It also becomes easier to find the proper treatment.

Sleep is a major factor in maintaining stability

For all individuals sleep is an important part of maintaining physical and mental well-being. There are various reasons that people have problems sleeping. Research shows that individuals who have bipolar disorder are at high risk for instability without appropriate sleep. Sleep is a basic component in managing the stability of this disease. Without proper cycles of sleep our bodies' basic biorhythms can be significantly disturbed. These biorhythms or "circadian rhythms" manage or contribute to not only our mental well-being but our physical well-being also. Sleeplessness is not the only problem. Too much sleep can also be a major factor of instability. It can contribute significantly to depressive cycles.

If you suffer from bipolar insomnia, it's important to take some basic steps that will help you to manage sleep. The steps can be called sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene includes several factors:

• 1. Try to avoid napping. If you do need to nap limit napping to the early afternoon and for a short duration.
• 2. Cut down or avoid the use of caffeine entirely.
• 3. Limit your consumption of alcohol.
• 4. Regular exercise is important because it helps to limit factors like adrenaline and quiets the body. The quiet body helps to produce a quiet mind.
• 5. Meditation or relaxation methods can help significantly when patients have sleeplessness. Often this helps to attack the problems that are introduced by hypomania and mania.
• 6. A helpful tool to help you and your doctor understand your sleep situation is to record your sleep cycles and other pertinent information in a log book or journal.
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Treating Bipolar Insomnia

If you're experiencing bipolar insomnia, there are several ways that your doctor may choose to treat your illness. Often this will be through the use of medication. Medications such as Seroquel can help to induce sleep. This class of medicines is called atypical antipsychotics. These medicines can act in a powerful way to induce sleep. For some patients with bipolar insomnia traditional sleep medications like Lunesta or Ambienmay not work. Trazodone may also be used as an off-label treatment for insomnia. Trazodone is an older treatment for depression. Generally with people who have bipolar disorder antidepressants are not used. It can cause the bipolar individual to have a, "bipolar switch". This switch can cause a person to come out of depression and enter mania. Careful consultation with your doctor is recommended. For those with bipolar induced insomnia it is recommended that treatment should come from a properly trained psychiatrist.

Over-the-counter medications for sleep

Over-the-counter medications for sleep are generally formulated from antihistamine medications. Many of these medications are older drugs. These antihistamines tend to make people sleepy. This is a major factor in why antihistamine medications have been changed. Newer antihistamines do not generally stimulate sleep. Other over-the-counter medications or supplements may also contain ingredients such as Valerian root, melatonin, or other herbal central nervous system depressants. Bipolar insomnia may not respond to over-the-counter medications.

Finding solutions for bipolar insomnia

To find the right solution you may have to try several approaches. It also might require the use of more than one of these options at the same time to help the bipolar individual stabilize both their sleep and their lives.

Information for this article is based on research by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Mayo Clinic.