I mentioned my sleep and mood journal. That’s always my first step in trying to solve the depression/anxiety relapse dilemma, because nothing (well, maybe food) affects my mood more than my sleep. Which is why it’s so importance to practice sleep hygiene,
which has nothing to do with wearing a condom and using plastic mattress liners.
Its about putting your head on the same pillow on the same bed (especially if you’re Catholic) at the same time every night and sleeping for the same amount of time. If that sentence just bored you to sleep, you are like me: spontaneous, erratic, unpredictable, unconventional (my thesaurus just ran out of words)!
That’s why sometimes it’s best to practice the advice Doc gave Lightening McQueen in the movie “Cars” (yeah, we’re a no TV house): turn left to go right. Meaning as soon as your brain says, “This is brilliant! You’re on a roll! Let’s stay up all night!” you need to shut down and go night night. And vice versa, when you’re in bed with pillow over your face, and you can think of nothing worse than putting your two feet on the floor, that’s exactly what you have to do, if you’ve slept your eight hours.
Sleep hygiene is even more complicated when you give birth to two insomniacs. Who would have thought putting your head on your pillow would be so much work–but for a manic depressive, keeping a regular sleep schedule has got to be one of the most difficult disciplines in recovery. But it is crucial to an effective treatment of depression–and a must for maintaining a stable mood–because alterations in sleep affect circadian rhythms, our internal biological clocks, which govern fluctuations in body temperature and the secretion of several hormones.
For a year and a half I’ve kept a mood/sleep journal to track how my zzzzs affects my thoughts. This is what I learned: if I slept less than seven hours, I was prone to mania, and if I slept over nine, I felt more depressed.