Sleeping patterns and SAD

Hello,
I've been dealing with SAD for the past several years - what a joy;] The thing that puzzles me the most (among other symptoms that I experience as well) is the sleeping patterns. Every year end of September/ beginning of October (yes, that would be now!) I get deprived of my healthy, deep, 8 hour long sleep to be replaced with shallow, short, bad quality sleep. Obviously sleeping is the key to well functioning so this doesn't help with every-day life. I find it particularly distressing as I see a huge drop in my cognitive functions which doesn't help with studying nor working. As I use the lightbox, keep exercising and maybe even go on Antidepressants the sleeping problem does alleviate but still my sleep is not the same quality as it tends to be in the bright months. What is it about SAD and the early waking/bad sleep? Is that part of your problem with SAD? How do you cope and how does it affect you?

You may both find a Bodyclock will assit the wakening process so using a Bodyclock to wake, then get bright Light from a Light Box once you have woken maybe at breakfast time, the two work well together. The Bodyclock also offers a sunset which helps you to wind down for sleep.

hi Linda. This has been me for the last 2 weeks. SAD is here :( and I am already on Citalopram, I never came off because last winter was so bad and then I had some serious issues over the summer so just reduced rather than coming off it.

What I have realised is that I just am going to be awake for 2 hours at about 5ish so I am going to bed early and doing something in that 2 hours, then going back to sleep when ready, for a couple of hours or whatever. A couple of nights ago, I even washed my hair at that time....! It's not great but I am thinking that the increasing dark will eventually mean that I just sleep straight through. From memory, I think that happens in November. I do also have sleeping pills on standby but I also went to bed very late last night, because I didn't have to go to work today, and then I did sleep straight through. So that's another tactic you could try?

I know how frustrating it is :( I tried melatonin and it seemed to make things worse.

wow, i am so amazed that it has taken me this long to find you all. i have been having episodes for the past god knows how many years but only noticed a pattern 3 years ago, i have been using myself as an experiment because my doc is so useless and wow its so nice to see others going through exactly the same. the mood swings and out of body experiences (thats what i like to call it when my head is not working properly, you know when you see yourself doing summat and you cant tell yourself to stop)have been an issue for so long but i didnt even think about the stupid sleep pattern, i say stupid cos for the past 3 days i have woken at 2am and been wide awake, so much so i have wanted to go and clean summat (but i think that is also cos in the day i cant be bothered to do anything. do you all use the light box? am looking into getting one, i dont do well on meds have tried so many, i am drawn to all the poxy side effects. anyway feel i can just waffle at the moment and dont want t oreally, just so pleased to see at this moment in time i am not alone, its such a relief!!!!

Hi all,

I've had a LED lightbox for the last couple of years to help with SAD and until this year it's been quite helpful although I haven;t always been very good about using it every day. I recently bought a dawn simulator to help with my inability to get up in the mornings but hadn't previously realised (as I hadn't had a clock beside my bed) that I actually wake up several hours earlier than I need the dawn simulator to start. Because I always felt lousy when my phone alarm went off, I just thought I need help waking up. I feel exhausted by 6pm this time of year, but if I go to bed early still can't sleep till after 10pm. Didn't see this as a problem. But it seems I then wake up around 2am, drift off, forty minutes later awake again, then again at 4am. At 5am my husband gets up and is not the quietest person around, thereby waking up my younger kids, who are then fully awake and making noise themselves. Now I don't actually need to get up till 6.45 but I have been awake on and off since 2. No wonder I am so washed out the rest of the day!

I had previously tried using my LED lightbox at 6.30 to wake me up more but my eyes can't take that much light so early. I've been using it the last few weeks at 9.30am for an hour but am now getting migraines so unable to use it at all (the dawn sim is ok not too bright so I can still use that). Not sure whether this is the cause, but either way I can't bear the light at the moment.

Any advice? I'd be particularly interested if anyone can advise on the best times to use either/both products (once the migraines have stopped) to ensure I get a decent night's sleep!

Helen

I had this problem too in the autumn. Sleeping tablets are good for short-term use, but obviously are addictive, and I didn't like the effects of the over-the-counter type available. In the end (in desperation) I bought Paul McKenna's book "I Can Make You Sleep" which comes with a self-hynosis CD. I loaded this onto my iPod, and nights gradually became much better. I know the CD quite well now, so often just recalling some of the phrases he uses are enough to help me relax and get back to sleep. I'm still quite often awake for an hour or so some nights, but that's a huge improvement on losing 3-4 hours sleep per night, which was a recipe for total non-function.

the discussions going on here is really great. I thing that there is some debit going one. The m,ost important thing to remember is that you should have a proper sleep no matter how you sleep