Simple daily time points — waking, starting activities, dinner, and bedtime — can help keep mood shifts in check.
Key Takeaways
- Focusing on consistent times for waking up, eating dinner, and going to bed helps keep your moods balanced.
- When life gets busy or stressful, working with your support team to protect your routine can prevent mood shifts.
- Using a simple diary or app to log your daily habits makes it easier to stay in your “groove” and notice personal red flags.
Overall, routine is the daily groove of activities that broadly make up the answer to, “Tell me about your day.” Given the many ways that people live their lives, the specifics can vary enormously.
Researchers refer to those habitual daily behaviors as “social rhythms.” Ellen Frank, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, led studies on social rhythms in people living with bipolar. She is credited as a leading developer of a psychotherapeutic approach for bipolar called interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT).
The Role of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT)
IPSRT combines two therapies that have proven effective for major depressive disorder. The interpersonal piece focuses on improving relationships and reducing conflict to minimize their impact on mood. As for social rhythm, a heightened vulnerability to a lack of routine or changes in routine seems to be a common characteristic of bipolar disorder.
Frank and her colleagues sought to determine what “time points” had the most effect on well-being and mood stability. They found that getting up in the morning, the start of daily activities (whether at work or for other tasks), the evening meal, and bedtime mattered most.
Researchers have also examined the psychological impacts on the general population of disruptions to daily life caused by the pandemic, which we know has been hugely stressful. They found that younger people and women, in particular, were more affected during that time.
Even apart from global game-changers such as the pandemic, disruptions — both those that loom large and those that seem minor — are an inevitable part of everyday life.
Routines can be thrown off by any number of events or experiences: personal illness or illness of a family member, an auto accident, conflict at work or home, rotating shifts, holidays, and travel. And don’t forget major life events such as starting a new job, going through a divorce, or even winning the lottery.
The loss of a loved one is among the more shattering disruptions. Your gym going out of business may have less emotional impact, but it still has the power to destabilize your routines.
What Can I Do to Safeguard Myself?
Some disruptions can be anticipated, such as a long-prepared-for wedding, an eagerly awaited baby, a scheduled move to a new job or home, or family coming to visit. In those cases, advance planning should help temper the fallout.
Again, solutions will be unique to you, but here are some general recommendations:
- Consult with your treatment team and social support circle in advance and keep them posted throughout.
- Identify elements of your healthy routine that you can maintain and those you may need to adapt.
- Build in time for self-care and prioritize relaxing.
- Self-monitor carefully for personal “red flags” signaling an oncoming mood shift.
Some disruptions, unfortunately, come out of the blue. Similar coping strategies apply, though you will probably be playing catch-up amid a stressful situation. Show yourself compassion if your well-being wobbles.
How to Build and Track Your Own Social Rhythms
Of course, all of that assumes you’ve established regular daily routines in the first place. It would be helpful to learn about the tenets of social rhythm therapy. You also may want to check whether there are therapists in your area (or accessible online) who have a focus in IPSRT.
Start by keeping track in a diary, smartphone app, or chart of when you go to bed, wake up in the morning, get the day going, and have your meals, especially dinner. Make it a priority to regularize those activities.
The more behaviors you can slot into your schedule — what time you exercise, meditate, or journal, and take your medications — the better. And that should include making time for things that are fun or meaningful to you, whether it’s reading a book, listening to music, socializing, or spending time in nature.
UPDATED: Printed as “Ask the Doctor: Managing Disruptions to Daily Routines,” Winter 2022
