Hi Everyone,
I am so glad to be back from a brief and necessary respite. I apologize for not being able to write, but I have been helping with my grandmother whose health is failing. As I try to get through all my mail, I want to first thank everyone who expressed concerns about my absence and a few of you who purchased a copy of my book, "Cooling Well Water: A Collection of Work By An African-American Bipolar Woman" (ISBN 13 978-0-9754612-0-4 ~ THANK YOU!
Since I had to do some out-of-town traveling, I wanted to share with everyone again how important sleep is to those of us with a chemical imbalance. We know on the surface that sleep is necessary and we understand that our medication will in most circumstances leave us a little drowsy. This means to me that all things are in God's working order. Just to recap a little further, I found an interesting article on the Emotional Health website about Bipolar Disorder and Sleep Problems by Gail Turim (See,
http://www.everydayhealth.com/bipolar-diso... Firstly, when we begin having difficulty sleeping, it means that a manic episode or depression is in the near future. The fact that insomnia arrives is a clear symptom to pay close attention to your mental health in order to prevent an episode or depression as best as possible. I usually contact my doctor after a few days of insomnia and get my blood levels checked. I may or may not need to make changes in my environment or with my daily routine. However, we have to respect the need for sleep so that we do not ignore it as a genuine symptom even if we have a medication therapy plan.
Secondly, according to Dr. Ellen Frank, don't ever believe that you do not need to take your medications as prescribed. Needless to say, this is very dangerous and we should not be fooled about those "feel good" days as well.
Thirdly, a deeper look at the relationship between Bipolar Disorder and Sleep helps us to understand even better the need to practice good sleep habits. Briefly, we each have organs and muscles that act together to create rhythms known as endogenous genes that are produced inside the body. We also have exogenous rhythms that are influenced by the sunrise or sunset. Because we are Bipolar, our inner and outer rhythms are very sensitive so we should be careful to respect our need to sleep.
Fourthly, how can we be sure to get the sleep we need? We each are different and require varying periods of sleep in a 24-hour period. I know that I must take a daily nap and need at least 6-8 hours of sleep nightly. Dr. Frank suggests that individuals with Bipolar understand his or her need and she recommends some handy tips to discover what your sleep needs are:
1) Record your daily activities including when you woke up and who you made contact with first
2) Record what you had for dinner and what time you went to bed
3) Look out for those environmental cues known as time takers or time givers! An example here is taking the cat out at a certain time or a trip out of town
4) Figure out how to maximize the use of these time takers or time givers to help with your sleep requirements
5) Maximizing these time takers and time givers will stabilize your moods and prevent frequent Bipolar episodes and depression
6) Understand and accept that the Bipolar Disorder and Sleep relationship is NOT going away!
7) Work with that relationship and respect your body's sleep routine
8) Make your sleep needs a priority in your household even if your spouse or other members do not have to follow a sleep regimen
9) Plan for situations that might threaten your sleep regimen and have a counter plan for it such as if you are traveling into another time zone, have a plan so that your body will still get its required sleep. I often participate in teleseminars and teleconferences and sometimes they occur in another time zone. When this happens, I will be sure to get my nap before or after the set time and I might even sleep late an hour or two the following morning. I sometimes adjust what time that I will have my dinner because of this, too.
10) Never operate a vehicle or machinery while under the influence of prescription medications! I plan for that drowsy period by adjusting my daily schedule so I can take a nap and let the drowsiness pass by.
Visit
www.namimetropolitanbaltimore.org Visit American Assoc. of Pastoral Counselors at
www.aapc.org Visit Ariafya at
www.ariafya.com for a personal mental health wellness plan
Association of Black Psychologists at
www.abpsi.org Visit Carl Bell at
www.giftfromwithin.org Visit Suicide Prevention Action Network USA at
www.spanusa.org
Posted By: agnes levine
Thursday, July 23rd 2009 at 10:39AM
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