Bipolar and Middle Insomnia - How can I fix this?

[snowflake]

I have always had trouble sleeping, and now that I know I have bipolar it's staring to make sense why.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice as to how to stay asleep at night. Each night I wake up 3-4 times a night but usually can get back to sleep. Some nights however, I cannot get back to sleep for 3-4 hours, sometimes for the rest of the night, meaning I'm feeling smashed at work the next day and don't get anything productive done. When I wake up I'm not anxious or anything, just wide awake and alert.

Should I speak to my pdoc about some medication to help me sleep? I'm worried about becoming addicted or the effects eventually wearing off. Currently for my bipolar I'm on 1350mg of slow release lithium and 60mg of cymbalta.

Thanks!

 

[David Baxter PhD]

You should definitely discuss this with your psychiatrist. Insomnia is failry common in Bipolar Disorder and it exacerbates the bipolar symptoms. There are several options that could help, most of which are not addictive.

 

[Always Changing]

I had a similar problem with sleep, I mentioned this to my pdoc and after discussing my concerns as you have stated above re becomiing addicted to sleep meds etc, I now have a low dose sleep med that I only take when needed. Definately speak to him\her.