Bipolar and sleep disorder?

For quite awhile (over a year) since taking bipolar meds, I haven't slept well. Then about a month ago I started almost like passing out as opposed to sleeping at movies, during my daughter's christmas recital, and worse at work! So I went to my psych and he suspected a sleep disorder, reduced my lithium, neurontin, added provigil. He referred me to a sleep dr. I've had a night study where I never hit level 3 (restorative) sleep and a day/nap study where my avg fall asleep time was about 5 min. (well below excessive daytime sleepiness threshold). I don't have a followup appt until next week.

Question: I apparently do not have classic symptoms (apnea, narcolepsy,etc.) for excessive daytime sleepiness (ESD). Now I feel caught in the middle that the sleep Dr. will suspect my psyc meds and my psych will still suspect sleep disorder.

Since my med change I've started feeling paranoid, withdrawn, anxious again and I'm afraid my bipolar is flaring up. What is in power to help? I can't concentrate at work and am afraid I'll loose my job over this. Any suggestions are appreciated.

I havent taken any of the meds you have but I had sleeping problems and my pdoc said it was due to my bipolar. To help that he started me on zyprexa but after awhile it wasnt strong enough and I found myself fighting it. So he switched me to seroquel and I definately cant fight that, but I also have a routine im stuck in. I must fall asleep on the couch, if I go into bed I will toss and turn. With it I sleep all night and then some lol. I am also on Lamictal. I use to take a combonation of that and depakote but Im off of that. (thank god I hate taking too many pills)

I dont understand though that if you are having difficulties why your doc doesnt try a different combination in meds to see if that fixes the problem. Obviously if you feel your bipolar flaring up the present combo is losing its affect. My doc will change either my dose or perscription when I tell him something doesnt seem to be working out. After all thats what they are there for, to moderate your meds accordingly so you can function.

I would tell him you want to try something different. After all you are paying him to listen to you. If he doesnt want to listen to you it may be time for a change in doctors. Whats the point of seeing him and paying that kind of money if he isnt going to. At least thats my view on it. Ive seen my doc's associate and if I had him as my regular pdoc I would have left a long time ago because he just didnt listen to me.

I hope you find a solution for the sleeping problem and soon!

I have narcolepsy, but have had manic depression for 20+ years which I was able to control by arranging my life to fit it. Then, March 2004, sleep became a BIG problem and coworkers thought I was going crazy. Soon, I couldn't remember things including my job. I started having terrible sleep attacks. I was diagnosed with narcolepsy. In Nov, I was official diagnosed with bipolar and doc think that narcolepsy knocked it out of control. Now I am a walking mess.

I was sleeping excessively each day for the past three years and didnt know why. I had a sleep study. They found nothing. They upped my add meds, a stimulant to keep me awake. Didnt work well, doing that. So I had another sleep study, this time the doctor put more things on my head for the sleep study, things that may detect seizures in the sleep. And that is what they found. Sleep seizures. So with that diagnosis, I read a book called Seized, by Eve LaPlante, and in that book I read that the diagnosis of Bipolar disorder and even schizophrenia are many times often misdiagnosed by psychiatrists. When all the while the real problem could be a tiny seizure problem that most people dont even realize that they have all their lives. Mine is called temporal lobe epilepsy, I'm 30 and I had no idea that i had this. I was told i had ADD and That is why I daydreamed in school, and struggled with remembering things in school, even though I was quite intelligent. Sure the ADD meds did help me, they woke me up, and I then was able to soak in the information from the teachers, and receive A's finally without a struggle. Its really disheartening to see so many people being drugged to the max with so many meds when the whole problem could be a simple misfiring in the brain that can be solved by one medicine. The temper tantrums end, the explosive rages end, the sleepiness in the daytime end, all with one medicine. (if you have an EEG and find you have seizures). I had other symptoms too. I had right sided headaches (not all the time) but when i had a headache, they would always be on one side only. I dont remember having any seizures or anything, but I guess its a silent thing that happens in the night. And it makes your brain exhausted, and you sleep all the time. I suggest you read the book Seized by Eve LaPlante, it really says a lot about the misdiagnosis of seizures and bipolar and stuff. And if you have headaches, and are very tired in the daytime, get a sleep study , with the seizure probes included to see if seizures are a part of your night time problem, not all sleep studys include the seizure probes, it took the second time for them to put them on my head. Also an EEG from a neurologist is an excellent way to absolutely find out if you are having the silent seizures or if in fact you really are bipolar. its the difference between taking many medicines, versus, one medicine.

sleep problems are common with bipolar. Your doctor needs to correct the med levels - your bp symtoms are made worse by incorrect meds as evident by your paranoid ect behavior. If everything else is checking out ok, then more than likely, the sleeping problems are reqlated to the bipolar. If he won't listen, find someone that will. I am pretty sure that the mania will return if you are able to sleep, then the
depression as I've seen this in my significant other.
Good Luck

i too have bipolar and i notice since taking my meds (im on 1000mg of depakote) i have trouble sleeping at night i get extremely anxious and my mind races and it takes along time to go sleep without the help of sleep meds i usually take 2-3 sleep pills a night cause its the only thing that puts me to bed.

Just had an EEG done in additional to my third MLST. Of course, like the first two, the MLST shows that I have narcolepsy. The surprise came that I have daily Petit Mal seizures both awake and asleep.

I am now on the beginning of my treatment to control the seizures and I taking 250mg Depakote in the morning once a day for a week. The second week, I will go to 1 in the morning and then one pill 4 hours later. The third week, I will go to 1 in the morning, again in 4 hours, and another one in 4 hours. Also, on the third week, I will add 10mg Adderall to control the narcolepsy.

I have hope that I will be able to enter the workforce again.

thank you for this thread.

i have bipolar 1 and sometimes sleep for up to 18 hours a day. i seem to be always exhausted (when i am not manic).

I'm not sure what a Bipolar Disorder is. By reading everone stuff, I'm guessing it's kind of a paranoid skitzofrenia. I know a bit about mental disorders, but more from a non-drug mind functional kinda way. I would say that a lot of these kinda problems can be worked out on a more permanant level without drugs using a sort of what most call regressive hypnosis therapy. If you're looking for a imediate temporary fix try this. Use the pendulem watch methode swinging back and forth while keeping your eyes focused on the watch. The watch must swing to both reaches of your vision limit (side to side). Unless you are hypnotized using this methode on a regularly, you don't have to worry about being hypnotized or anything like that. The whole reason hypnotists use this methode while hypnotizing someone is to syncronize both sides of the brain. I suspect that is what needs to happen to disolve a Bipolar Disorder at least temporarily. If this can be done without drugs, you may eventually have your brain trained to maintain it's own balance without the use of further drugs...

Now that I've given my input, I have my own problem with sleep. I've been searching the web and currently can't find a description of my sypmtoms or what causes them. These are my sypmtomes. While sleeping very deeply during the night, sometimes I wake up to discover my neck and head shaking side to side at an almost inhuman rate (like a seizure). But only my neck and head. The rest of my body stays put. Also the shaking stops the instant I am completely awake. My wife has witnessed this and says it looks like a seizure. Says my head is almost a blur sometimes. The only bad thing about this is my neck muscles are really sore and there is a little presure behind the eyes afterwards, and ofcourse I get woken up. Mind you I don't have any trouble getting back to sleep if I want to. I was wondering if someone who knows about sleep disorders might have come accross a similar case or if anyone else has had this happen?