Time To Talk. Time To Change

So basically this is gonna be a really short entry (hopefully!) just to tell you guys about the "Time To Talk. Time To Change" campaign. It's basically an on going campaign to erase the stigma that seems to follow Mental Health Disorders where ever they go..
As the title suggests it's basically about talking about it!! You guys have been brilliant about talking about it :) And talking about my experiences has been really, really great. Loads of people have been so understanding and like interested! Which really surprised me at first.

So yeah.. hopefully if the links and stuff works.. (I haven't used links before in this blog! :o exciting right?!) hopefully, you lovely people will be able to go straight to the website for "Time to Talk. Time To Change" right... here :
 http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/home

And right here (hopefully) you guys will be able to go straight to a YouTube advert about what "Time To Talk. Time To Change." is all about (!) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tiYbhVBjTk

So have a look around, see what it's all about, follow the campaign on twitter and facebook and all those lovely things :)

Feeling Sleepy?

So.. I wanted to talk about SLEEP.

As we all know, we need sleep, if we didn't get sleep, we would die. End of.

So what about when you just can't get to sleep? What then? I want to know.. what do you guys do? Any wacky before bed rituals?? :)

So my parents say as I child I never slept. When I was a baby I would be waking them up every hour or so, just crying, and wouldn't go back to sleep for ages. Something which I still think they hold against me now.. Unlike my perfect big brother who slept through the whole of the night every night haha. Anyone else have that? A sibling that's perfect in every way?? :P
And then as a kid (well more of a kid than I am now I guess) I used to have horrible nightmares. I can't really remember any of them. But I remember that after a month or so of my parents trying everything they could think of to get me back to sleep or to stop crying at stupid hours in the morning when I'd woke, they just gave up. I'd be crying in the room next to them and there was nothing they could do, so they just left me. And eventually I guess I just grew out of these strange nightmares that frightened me so much.
But lately I've been having nightmares again, mostly based on things that have happened in my life recently, just playing over and over. Like a ghost, ready to haunt me whenever I close my eyes. So yeah, I find it really hard to get to sleep in the first place, I'll often lay in bed for hours before I manage to drift off. Then I'll sleep for like 30 minutes at the very most before I'm woken up by these nightmares. And then I rarely get back to sleep.

So are nightmares common in adolescents and adults?? Well yes, about 50% of people have some kind of sleep problems. Be it sleep talking, nightmares or night terrors.

The sleep talking has reminded me of a rather embarrassing camping trip that happened a few weeks back. I often go on camping weeks/weekends with the dance team I'm with. And about a month ago I went and shared a tent with a lovely lady on our dance team called Helen. Then a couple of weeks ago on another trip, her dad was on the trip too. And me, him and a few other people, including my mam were talking. And somehow we got on to the subject of sleep (:D) and sleep talking. So my mam decides to share with the group of friends that "Oh yes, Emma sleep talks all the time, she keeps us awake when we're camping with all her mutterings." To which Helen's dad replies "Yeah, funny that, out Helen says that too."
So it appears not only do I have terrible dreams, but I also keep people awake with my sleep muttering. I wonder what I mutter about..? :) (One man tent and a tape recorder next time, ey?!)

So about sleep problems.. related to bipolar? I doubt it very much. But what about you guys?
And what can we do about it? A friend suggested to me, listening to music, or the radio. Which is good, it keeps you good company. But I find it keeps my brain working and I get caught up with the music or talk and can't get my head to stop thinking. So what I found, was similar. A sound track called "Rainy Mood". Which is effectively rain, and a bit of thunder. And it has helped me a little, and from what I hear has helped others. It's more affective on men though? D'you think? So that's what I do.. what about you?