Today I woke up at four thirty in the morning; my sleep has been so disrupted ever since I switched to taking only one of my antipsychotic medications. I was on two of them before, and although taking multiple antipsychotics is generally thought of as poor psychiatric practice, it was what worked well for me over the past few years. Now that I'm healthier, I feel that I will be able to control my symptoms with the single medication.

The sedation I felt in the past while taking two medications was immense, but over the years I grew used to it and learned to battle it with the consumption of excess caffeine. But now that I'm no longer on the other med, and since I'm still drinking caffeine to excess, I simply cannot sleep well. At night I have been sleeping about three hours, and then during the day I take a two hour nap. It certainly seems to me that five hours a sleep a day isn't enough; I'm even a bit worried that I will catch cold or flu or some other physical illness due to my lack of sleep.

On the other hand, at least now I'm not quite so sedated and have more energy for most of the day. That is important because I have had many things I have needed to complete to get my book out. With less sedation, I can actually get quite a bit of work done. I wouldn't say that I was overmedicated before (I wasn't), because in the past I needed the extra medication due to my more severe hallucinations and paranoia. I hope some sleep comes tonight; I think I'm ready for a long, good night's sleep.