I have been awake for 56 hours strait and am not tired

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It is now 3:00pm on 9/9/2012 about 67 hours since i last slept. I dont really see this as a problem. I think some of you are ever reacting a little. I am not playing russian rulet im just not sleeping. My mom said she was going to get me some sleep pills for tonight. I am probaly gong to go to bed at 10pm meaning i will have gone 74 hours. I am feeling more tired frequintly now about 3 times every hour for about 1 min i feel so tired but oher then that i am fine. I do see weird things out of my perifririal vision though. What is the big deal without sleep anyway. I normaly sleep for 8 hours and i only ever sleep 6 times a week. The only reason i posted it was to see if i could die within 2-3 days. I googled it and it sayed 2-3 weeks. I am not really worried. I will update at 8pm.

I went to bed yesterday afternoon after being awake 48 hours. The reason you don't feel tired is because you're "overtired." It's also really unhealthy to stay up that long.

I whole-heartedly agree that the OP needs to see a doctor to rule out potential mania. Even if it is actual insomnia, that is still a common symptom of depressive episodes, so a mood disorder still could be likely.

Yeah. Unless you want to start seeing things, you should get to a doctor. 56 hours and still not sleepy is a medical problem.

Even insomnia after that length of time is enough reason to go to an urgent care center. While it might not be a "call 911" emergency, it's not something you can wait half a week to go to the doctor for.

See a doctor immediately.

IF you understand what happens when you sleep. you would see that it is a big problem. So far you've missed 3 long periods for the body to fix it self.

There is a reason we sleep everyday, its not because we are told to or anything, but body needs time to repair it self and renew.

Does it cost money to go to a doctor? else i dont understand why not.

Seems wierd to gamble, with ones health and risk dying.

Not to mention, it is rather unpleasant. I went through a period of about ten years when I slept about two hours a day, on average. It was nice having all the extra time, but I was always fatigued.

It started when I was working at one job in one state and teaching Math part time at a university in an adjoining state. I'd work until about four am, sleep until six am, and then drive to the university to teach an 8 am class. Then back at about two pm and work until four am. At first, I would fall asleep on the sofa about once a week for eight to twelve hours, but after a while, I got used to it.

Well, it's way past 8 pm and still no update. With a little luck it's because you fell asleep.

I frequently cannot sleep for many days in a row, being hyper-active and overenthusiastic about some thing or another. After reading your post, I googled bipolar (just out of curiosity) and was shocked. It was like when I first read about Asperger's. I got the creepy feeling that they wrote the description based on my life. I don't know, I always imagined manic-depression differently. The saddest moment was when I read about the treatment for manic episodes and I thought "Why would they want to change these active periods? That is when I am happy" and then in the next sentence they wrote that there are often compliance problems, because the manic-depressive tend to feel good during these episodes and do not understand that there is a need for treatment.

Uncomfortable reading how others might perceive my behaviour... I think I prefer being an Aspie to being bipolar. Therefore, I am just going to forget about this and remember it only when I get suicidal in order to make me realise what might be going on.

little-black-sheep

You can be both. It's not important how other may percieve your behavior, you might need help.

Yes, we may say that the biggest problem could be that they might not realize that there is a serious health issue with their behavior. If you are aware of it, it's much less likely that you'll have a pathological manic period. Unfortunately, in such a case they would most likely prescribe you antipsychotics, and that can cause permanent damage to the nervous system, especially the atypical ones.

My sister is bipolar so we can say I have first-hand experience too.

Hiya:

Just pointing out - yes, anti-psychotics are being prescribed for bipolar - but good old lithium is still an effective (for many) front runner. You do have to keep an eye on your blood levels, but - just pointing out, you have a say and there are choices.

Also, anti-seizure drugs are used for bipolar - something like Lamictal (spelling?) is pretty well tolerated (there are considerations, like a rash that can be very serious) - and this one is great for people who tend toward the depressive side. Really, you have to weight any medication you take for any reason against risks and benefits - right? Sometimes are choices are pretty limited - other times we get lucky.

Education and life-style practices (all the basics like sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress management - and especially 'Mindfulness' meditation) are beneficial - with or without meds. I don't think it should ever be 'meds alone'. This is a site/author I really enjoy: http://www.mcmanweb.com/

Best wishes, LM

I just remember the cases where you hear about people sitting at a computer for a few days without sleep and dying, so it definitely can happen.

But maybe its not just because of the lack of sleep, maybe its also because of sitting down so long dunno. Just be careful.

Yes, non-compliance in bipolar disorder often is related to people not wanting to give up their "high" episodes. If you are active, productive, and enjoying things during "high" periods, most likely, you have had only hypomania, not full-blown mania. While hypomania can lead to undesired consequences (i.e., from spending sprees), by definition, hypomania does not involve psychotic symptoms or hospitalization. As such, many people who find out these "high" periods have been hypomania do not feel that these are periods of illness that need to be treated. I have never been hypomanic, but these feelings are completely justifiable, due to the intense elation and creativity hypomania can bring. So, it is quite common for bipolar individuals to either refuse medication to keep their hypomanias or to stop treatment after a certain time in order to develop the hypomanic pleasures they have grown to miss.

However, there are several downsides to not treating hypomania. If you only treat the depressive "lows," and you don't mention to your doctor about the hypomanic "highs," you most likely will be prescribed an SSRI, not a mood stabilizer. SSRIs are notorious for inducing hypomania/mania. Most importantly, there is always a chance that you will develop a manic episode sometime in the future, which is much more serious. For most individuals who have actual manic episodes, once the threshold from hypomania to mania has been crossed, less and less of the enjoyment that came along with the hypomania hangs on. And the more severe the mania, the less pleasant the experience. Full-blown psychotic mania is a very frightening experience. Finally, some data show that, if left untreated, people will not only tend to have more severe episodes, they also may have more episodes total and become rapid cyclers. This is known as the "kindling" hypothesis.

And thank you, Logicalmom, for touting lithium. It is being very underused in this day and age of overprescribing atypical anti-psychotics for bipolar disorder. But lithium is still the original anti-manic, and it still outperforms many of the other mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics in clinical trials. Lithium isn't as effective in less "textbook" cases of "manic-depression," but for the classic form of the disorder, it still should be considered as a first-line treatment.