I have had quite a lot of sleep issues in the last 2/3 years and I’m not sure that I have got to grips with sleep hygiene as yet. Though I have had a sleep hygiene module with the Great Yarmouth well being service.
As I have maybe previously mentioned, manic episodes often involve large bursts of energy and euphoria. These symptoms can make it incredibly difficult to sleep. This is a reality for me when my mind is buzzing and racing and it’s very hard to calm the mind down, even with CBT, mindfulness, distraction, medication. Unlike the normal response to this which is allegedly that an individual will not feel tired or exhausted I feel tired and my mind becomes muggy. I also find that I seem to wake up far to early and then can not get back to sleep, this is disruptive and I now do not fight it but just get up and get on with stuff as I can, even if it’s 3/4am.
The sleep hygiene course did offer me some ideas which I do generally follow. They were:- Don’t use screen based tech for a couple of hours before sleep, Don’t have caffeinated drinks in the evening, Don’t start a piece of work so late at night that it will drag to bed time, Have a hot bath that you step out of about 45 minutes prior to sleep ( warm down aides sleep allegedly ). I have also found that listening to relaxing music helps and also listening to monotone spoken word books can also help ( the more animated narrators are less helpful ).
An individual experiencing symptoms around sleep may require less sleep, but won’t necessarily feel tired or exhausted. Sometimes these symptoms are often mischaracterized as insomnia. A person suffering from insomnia experiences persistent difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep ( I tend to have this during a depressive state ) . This isn’t quite what happens during a manic episode. Patients typically just don’t feel tired to the same degree they normally would, and as such, they choose to stay up and use outlets to expend their energy rather than try to sleep.
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