I fall a sleep fine. Say 11 PM. Just I wake up at 4 am for good. Plus I wake up for a second or two at 1 am. Suggestions?
This is probably caused by my Abilify (medicine.)
Next question- I have the luxury of going to sleep at 10 pm. 7 hours later is 5 am. What do I do? Get up? Won't I be tired? (For most of my life I woke up late. But now with my new med I've been a new person. And I have been davening shachris as early as 8 and as late as 930, though rarely. I'm trying to figure out how to not only fall a sleep normally , which I now can, bh, and get up normally, which I now can, bh, but sleep normally in between which still eludes me.)

All I can say is talk to the doctor who prescribed the drug. Also read carefully the description of the drug (you can do a search online) to be aware of common side effects and contra-indications. If you're able to fall asleep at 10PM and get up at 5, that's 7 hours of sleep, not too bad. Lots of people start their day at 5 AM on a regular basis.

Why is this a problem? I wish I had such a sleeping schedule.

I constantly speak to the dr. We just went from 2 mg to 1 mg abilify yesterday.
Gabbe, I take it you are saying 5 hours sleep is great. I guess people have babies waking them up a whole night or other things. In my case, I complain because I still feel exhausted major parts of the day. But that may be from all my medications (6 of them.) I am going to a personal trainer today. Maybe excersize will help my sleep/tiredness.
Like its 8 am. Why am I yawning so deeply? Or does everyone experience that?

definitely a question for your doctor who knows how to balance out the side effects of your meds.

I'm assuming your not ingesting caffeine or alcohol....
some people recommend taking melatonin http://www.vitacost.com/store/products/pro...er=753406098064 in the afternoon or early evening to prevent circadian rhythm disorders and to treat sleep disturbances...

I'm staying far away from caffeine. I never drink alchohol but a coca cola would have been nice.

Changes in sleep patterns/circadian rhythms are standard symptoms of depression. Tell your doctor about it. Hopefully as your treatment progresses your sleep patterns will return to normal.
In the meantime, why not make lemonade out of lemons and daven at a netz minyan?

That could be it. Or maybe you need more vitamins.

9

I learn when I'm awake at 5 am. Often I listen to a tape of Reb Matisyahu or Rav Shor, my 2 favorites.
I don't get dressed till 745 because I findf lying in bed is still more restfull than getting up.
It may be that the abilify is doing it. I'm hearing information that it is a stimulant. Thats great for energising a person with depression but lousy for sleep.
Its all so complicated. You are suspected of being a wee bit bipolar ("soft bipolar") so your given a med. The med revvs you up so they say "aha-u really are bipolar." but maybe I'm not. Maybe its just the med. And is it bipolar or OCD. Constant thoughts can be one or the other. So the psychiatrist says the bp is spilling over into OCD. Mahaicha taisi. Now I hear this med can cause OCD! Very complicated.

Maybe you should try going to sleep later.
Also, you might want to try some kind of vitamins to regulate your sleep. Most health food store (employees) might be able to help you.
Try not to let your psychiatrist prescribe sleeping pills. You don't need more meds.(These days, they are trying to push Ambien CR..controlled release- you take one pill and it gives you small doses continually through the night to keep you asleep)

Hes against controlled release because it lasts 24 hrs. He wants to get it into the blood stream but not have it released all the time. He likes giving it before bed so you slep through side affects.
Hes not givings sleeping pills per se, such as Sominax, but he is using 2 mg klonopin, which is supposed to be very sedative except it isn't for me.
I just woke up at 430 am. I went to sleep at 1030 pm. I had such a long shabbos. It was hard to go to sleep any later. Also the later I go to sleep the harder it is to fall asleep.
I left my house before 8 and didn't walk back in untill after motzy Shabbos! I davened, went to kiddush, ate by driend, learned with a guy an hour, learned with brother an hour, went to a shull Shalash Sudas with speeches, heard havdala and came home. I did all that so I shopuldn't sleep and ruin my night. But how will I go from 430 am untill 9 pm tonight? Thats 17 and a half hours! (Is that not a big deal? I'm not usaed to this. I used to sleep untill noon on Shabbos and feel bad I missed davening. No one knows me here so I guess I can be open.)
I really should be proud of myself. Although people have much worse things, still I am battling a hard thing and really trying to overcome it.

At least you realize that these people are "witch doctors" and often their treatments cause more problems than the actual condition does.... They have NO idea what they're doing, or how brain chemistry works and basically they use unfortunate humans to experiment on... They just keep pumping drugs into you until you are "healed" or too messed up to realize or care...

I have a friend who was totally ruined by overzealous doctors. It was the same thing. He had depression or bi-polar so they gave him some drugs that made him hyper, then they gave him depressants to counter the hyperactivity, then one of the medicines started to make him hallucinate so they gave him mood stabilizers and anti-hallucinogenics. B'kitzur they put him on an entire drug cocktail, all but one to cure the side effects of the other drugs he was given... He also ended up freing out and leaving Israel, and I haven't heard from him since....

I have another friend alav hashalom, who had his kidneys blown out by lithium (the doctor never bothered to monitor his blood chemistry) and had to be on dialysis for a LONG time before he finally passed away....

Tov Sheberofim indeed.....

Oh i agree. But as FDR said, "democracy is the worst system, except for all the rest..." I believe I need some sort of medicine for depression. More than that it gets really complicated. But I don't believe in other mhalchim aside from mainstream psychiatry. For example, I don't beleive it can all be cured with vitamins or naturapath remedies. Lithium sadly killed your dear friend. But it has also helped people. It was the negligent dr in his case-and I've met so many incompetent ones, but I think I've found competent ones now. I keep finding better ones as the years go on.
My psychiatrist admits that he's just throwing meds at me untill he finds the right combinations. But I see that as anivus on his part. He recognises his limitations.
Also, he always calls me back. He called me back this morning.
The good news is I fell back asleep so sound I missed his call. BH.
I go to a psychiatrist but I go with my eyes open.

I never meant to say that there wasn't a place for psychiatrists and medication, just that many present themselves as "mumchim" when they are really just experimenting by trial and error, or causing more problems with their drugs than were there originally and unfortunately sometimes the results are very unfortunate...

My issue is when people put their blind faith into them, and don't realize that very often they don't know much more than YOU do...
Also the shita of drugging without therapy bothers me greatly, so much so that many psychiatrists are nothing more than drug dealers who write prescriptions and never speak to the patient for more than 10 mins at a time. (My Bro goes to one of these to get ADD medicine, but he has a psychologist on the side. Most people aren't so fortunate)

As long as you go in with open eyes, you will be OK...

No, it's not really so bad if you're able to sleep soundly from 10:30 to 4:30. The thing is, at this point you're not really accustomed to this sleep schedule either physically or emotionally. If this wakefulness at 4:30am seems to be permanent, then what I'd suggest is organizing your day around your peaks and troughs of energy and alertness. In other words, plan active activities, or activities you need to use your brain, around the hours you're feeling most energetic and alert. Plan quiet activities around the times you'll be feeling more tired, but keep yourself awake until bedtime. Or is it unpredictable, and suddenly bam, you're falling asleep in middle of a shiur?

I agree with Shmelly. 6 hours of solid sleep isn't that bad.

Try Nyquil. Or Benadryl.

You might want to consider trying Simply Sleep. It's made by the same company that makes Tylenol PM, but instead of being a combination of sleep aid and pain reliever like Tylenol PM, it is just a sleep aid (and according to the company non-habit forming).

Taking OTC drugs that make you sleep is an EXCEEDINGLY bad idea if you are on other medications, unless the doctor specifically tells you to....

Yes, anyone on prescription medication should check with his/her doctor before taking any additional prescription drugs or OTC products. That said, I don't see anything wrong with asking your doctor/ pharmacist if it would be OK to take a sleep aid.

Benadryl is also Dyphenhydramine HCl - same as the "PM" part of Tylenol PM - except it also has an antihistamine. The "PM" alone would be better if you get that. You may need to adjust such medications until you find the balance of sleep that doesn't leave you mildly 'hung over' As for the OTCs mixing with antidepressants and tranquilizers, Tylenol is usually okay. Ibuprofen may be a problem, so don't use Advil PM. Again, check with your MD

It seems to be getting better. I went to sleep at 1030 and woke up at 330. I was like grrrr. But then I fell back asleep untill 7 am .
Now its 750 and I'm going to shull.
There was a rebbe who once said that people only tell him tzoros, not nachas. That is why I wanted to post good news too.