Shhhhhh! Sleeeeeeeeeeeeping........

I am very hesitant to whisper this to myself, much less announce it to the internet, but in the last few weeks the last gigantic issue I was having has resolved itself, and in fact I have improved far over my baseline. I'm referring to sleep. I'm doing it. Not too much and not too little. And waking. I'm doing that not too much and not too little either. This is very strange for me, I haven't done this well with sleep in so many years I can't remember. I, Just Me, am waking up at 7 am routinely and falling asleep by midnight or 1 am. I've needed the occasional nap, but mostly I've been awake and as long as I stay busy I don't fall asleep. Boredom leads to napping, but that won't be an issue much longer as I start work this week.

It's partly the meds, I finally found a balance of mood stabilizers, antidepressants, Ativan, and prayer at night that is counterbalanced well by an odd dose of Provigil, which is a stimulant really used to treat narcolepsy that I use to wake up from the hefty doses of sedation. It's appearing that odd doses may be my new ticket; I'm taking oddball doses of 4/5 meds (cutting them into 3/4 of the tablet, taking 2 different dose pills to get a very precise dose) and it works much better.

In addition I'm on a lot less lithium than ever before. My level is around an average level now instead of the high level I've always needed. Therefore I am finally not having to pee every 2 hours. I'm consistently sleeping for 5 solid hours and that is a precious, precious thing.

The psychologist made me rearrange my furniture to cause a change to trick my brain into not going into my old routine of getting wound up at bedtime. I do not agree with him that this is a major factor because I slept well the last 3 nights before I did it, but it does help.

The major factor to me is a weighted blanket. This is exactly what it sounds like. We use them at work and they are used also in schools with kids with ADHD. The theory is that the pressure is calming. I've seen them work like magic so I decided to try it. It was somewhat expensive by the time I bought the special blanket, the weights, and paid to ship all that (it's heavy). But it was worth every cent. Those 9 lbs. seem to not only be calming, since the day I got the blanket I have totally stopped sleeping violently. Naturally that was costing me a lot of sleep, so this helps me feel much better.

Anyway, someone should do a study on bipolars and weighted blankets.....Just not me! ('cause I'm SLEEPING! And controlling my projects!)