Bipolar and The Sleep Conundrum:

Exploring Causes of Insomnia and Creative Solutions

“Sleep is the Best Meditation” ~The Dali Lama

Insomnia can be one of the most frustrating and worrisome experiences when you have a mental illness. Insomnia can be the result of being anxious, depressed or manic or it can be a precursor to an episode.  This post is going to focus specifically on bipolar, but strategies to get a good night sleep are relevant to other mental illnesses. I believe all mental health symptoms benefit from the ability to get a good night’s sleep. A good night’s sleep is subjective: how much one needs to sleep to feel rested is dependent on what works for your body. Some people feel rested after six hours of sleep whereas others need eight hours.

It’s important to understand the connection between insomnia and bipolar and explore ways to improve sleep, which positively impacts mood and functioning. The quality of sleep and how rested the person feels in the morning are two indicators that your body is sleeping at an optimal level. Of course, psychiatric medications, states of depression, anxiety, and mania, as well as other factors influence whether you feel rested in the morning. I think the trick is identifying what contributes to your insomnia and experimenting with tools to see what improves your sleep.