Insomnia Buster

As a BiPolar person I dont think it is possible not to experience bad insomnia at some point. Of all my "symptom correlations" to my mood disorder, insomnia is the one that correlates most accurately with my highs and lows. I dont think I've ever had insomnia when I'm particularly depressed. On the contrary - sleeping (and lots of it) is about all I can do when badly depressed.

On the other side of the scale -> every episode of full-blown mania I've ever had has been marked by critical insomnia.

So insomnia is something I've had a relationship with for a long time. Fortunately I've always had a cure that has worked for me: stuff my face with refined carbos. Peanut butter sandwiches on white bread are a staple. Pasta is good too. The trick is to gorge yourself so that the ensuing sluggishness washes the insomnia away. The problem with this cure (as with nearly all psycho-symptom cures) is that it has strong side effects: baggage around the middle regions.

So I'm pretty excited with a new Insomnia cure that I've been experimenting with. I'm not sure if everybody does, but I usually remember snippets from my previous night's dreams. Sometimes they're quite involved sometimes just a glimpse. What I have discovered recently is that when you are lying in bed and sleep is playing its elusive tricks, thinking about recent fragments of dreams that you have had often gets you to sleep. I'm not sure exactly what the mechanics of this process are, but suspect that just the act of thinking about your dreams puts you into more of a dream-type state of mind into which it is easier to drift.

Would be great to hear of anybody else's experiments in this regard.