Q: HI, i have been having a strange state of mind where i reject sleep at my bed time. now i only sleep when my eyes are too heavy to keep open. so what are some of the risks of not sleeping when you need? BTW, i still get 8 hours of sleep when i do.
A: Hi, I used to have bipolar manias, and the first symptom was ALWAYS decreased need for sleep. The bad thing about getting manic is that everybody who has a severe manic episode looses judgement, and usually spends all their money, and often end up with nothing, including being homeless. Add to that, if it gets really out of hand, the police will, if you're lucky, take you handcuffed to a mental hospital, where you'll be treated like a criminal for a good six weeks. Sometimes, if you get manic, you might end up in jail if you do something odd. It's okay not to sleep or have bad sleep for a night or two, but once you go without sleep for so many days, you begin to develop psychosis. Several years ago, I went a full 3 months with NO sleep and had so much energy I could not stop walking--24/7. It took over a year for my feet to heal from that much walking. In order to overcome this, I had to do two things: One is when I don't feel like sleeping, but know I need to, instead of focusing on all the things going on in my mind, I focus on how my body actually feels. The second thing is a friend of mine told me about Melatonin: it is a natural substance, and gives you a relaxed sleep that you don't get with tranquilizers or anti-psychotics. My friend owns a farm, and says the farmers use it to calm steers down before shows. I figured it could not possibly be worse than the anti-psychotic drugs I was allergic to and almost died from numberous times. I sometimes take 2 3mg tablets, but that won't work either if your mind doesn't realize that your body is important to take care of. Also, I was resistant to tranquilizers, and found that drinking coffee at night, or caffeine, made it worse, and switched to milk or a vitamin drink. Melatonin is available in health food stores. St. John's Wart has a little bit of melatonin in it, but not enough that made any difference for me. I know other people who just take Melatonin when they feel agitated and cannot deal with it naturally. Some people naturally don't need a lot of sleep, but since you say you are having a "strange state of mind" that is keeping you awake, it reminds me more of the beginning of a mania, which, for me, is also accompanied by a feeling of strange energy that doensn't feel right. But don't despair: bipolar is called "the brilliant madness" and does not always involved depression or anger like people think. People who have it are usually extremely intelligent, perhaps because of those excited thoughts, but to live with it, you have to keep balanced.