Individuals with bipolar disorder often report daily fluctuations in sleep, stress, and mood and these can also vary across the seasons. In collaboration with Helen Burgess, Ph.D., from the Sleep and Circadian Research Laboratory, the Sleep Across Seasons Study (SASS) will monitor daily mood and sleep patterns in individuals with bipolar disorder for one month in each of the four seasons.
Participants will be recruited from the Prechter Bipolar Research Program. Participants are expected to complete four separate months of data collection, with each data collection month occurring in a different season. During each study month, participants will be asked to wear a wrist actigraph to gather objective data on their sleep. They will also complete daily mood questionnaires, medication logs, and sleep logs. Additionally, participants will collect two separate overnight urine samples (during any night-time bathroom trips and first pee in the morning) within each data collection month. These urine samples will be used to measure melatonin and oxidative stress levels.
Through this collaboration, we hope to better understand the daily fluctuations in mood, stress, and sleep that people with bipolar disorder typically experience, and if they influence hormone and oxidative stress levels.
This study has received approval from: IRBMED HUM00183931