Much has been said about afternoon naps or daytime naps in general. A short nap can make you more efficient leading to better performance. It helps you...

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How many times have you thought that sleep is a waste of time? Are you guilty of pushing your body to go without sleep simply because you have chores to do or even because you want to watch that movie? You are not alone is disregarding sleep. Sleep is one of the most undermined things that people readily take for granted. However, sleep, both sleeplessness and oversleeping, is a cause of concern. Sleep is closely related to your health, both physical and mental, and cause severe impacts on both the faculties. This article will outline the relationship that sleep shares with your mental state, especially depression.
Before you try to understand the relationship shared between sleep and depression, it would be helpful to understand these two concepts individually:
Sleep: Sleep is defined as the naturally recurring state of your body in which there is a loss of consciousness, reduced muscle movement, and reduced environment interaction. Any disorder associated with sleep falls broadly under:
Depression: Depression is a mood disorder. It causes persistent feelings of sadness and creates disinterest in anything and everything in your life. Generally characterized by intense sadness, remorse, and hopelessness, depression tends to cripple a person’s daily life as effectively if not more than any other medical illness. It is also known as “Major Depressive Disorder” or “Clinical Depression.”
WHO has currently pegged the number of people suffering from depression worldwide at a staggering 264 million and counting.
As a child, chances are you never had trouble going to sleep. But as and how you grew, it started making you more and more effort just to fall asleep. There are hosts of the reason for this ranging from anxiety, stress to something severe like depression. Depression, apart from taking over your life, also takes over your sleep.
One of the most common and core symptoms of depression is sleep disorders. Approximately 75 percent of people with depression are known to have sleep problems. Some might have trouble getting to sleep, others might have trouble staying asleep, and some might even oversleep. Whatever the sleep problem, the fact is that depression disrupts your sleep pattern. These are discussed in detail below:
A 2006 study involving 25,000 people concluded a link between depression and people getting too little sleep or too much sleep.
Sleep and depression share a two-way relationship with depression, causing sleep issues and sleep disorders leading to symptoms of depression. Sleep is when your body gets the chance to revive, refresh, and rejuvenate from the day’s event. It is during sleep that your body prepares itself for the next day.
When you do not get enough rest, your body gets thrown off track and comes under too much pressure. This throws your body into high levels of stress, anxiety, and a host of other behavioral issues, including depression.
Apart from this, sleeplessness impacts the hormone production function of your body, especially the happiness hormone “Dopamine.” This is a feel-good hormone and is how your brain “rewards” you. It is involved with pleasurable sensations. A 2007 review clearly links fall in the dopamine levels of your body with depression.
The co-relation as per various other clinical studies is discussed below:
You have to sleep. Sleeping elevates your mood and helps you overcome depression. However, sleeping is hard when you are depressed. Some pointers that can help you sleep better under depression are:
Some common queries are answered below to settle your mind.
Depression and sleep are closely related. One of the first signs and symptoms of depression is a sleeping disorder. This can be both sleeplessness and oversleeping. They are both related to mental health issues, and oversleeping may be a sign of clinical sleep disorder like hypersomnia, which in turn is a sign of clinical depression.
Sleep and mental health are closely connected. Their relationship goes both ways. Poor sleep and sleep deprivation are associated with mental health issues like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Sleep disorder both causes these mental health conditions and is a result of these conditions as well.
Insomnia is defined by the following characteristics:
Insomnia is a sleep disorder. It is not considered as an isolated mental or medical illness but rather viewed as a symptom of some other underlying medical issue.
The only way you can stop thinking altogether when conscious is by turning off your brain. However, research shows that it is impossible to shut off your brain while you are awake. Trying not to think makes you think even more. So, the trick when trying to sleep is not to concentrate on trying not to think but to think about neutral things that will not cause any anxiety or worry for you. This thinking pattern is conducive to sleeping and helps you stay asleep longer as well.
Sleep is the most natural thing in the world that generally requires little to no effort on your part. It is as important a function as eating and breathing. The consequences of sleep go beyond, affecting just your physical body. Sleep penetrates the functioning of your brain as well and holds the potential to push you into depression. Hence smarten up and before sleep takes you to task catch up to those snoozes.
Much has been said about afternoon naps or daytime naps in general. A short nap can make you more efficient leading to better performance. It helps you...
Do you or the people around you talk in their sleep? Do you wonder why do people talk in their sleep? Many people are habitual of talking while they are...
As important as sleep is, even the best of us miss out on it. Be it stress or illness, travel, or some obligation, the interruptions to sleep are plenty. Lack...
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