Have you been feeling depressed lately? Well, you certainly aren’t alone! Depression affects people all over the world, and it is a common mental health issue.
Unfortunately, determining the cause behind your depression might be difficult. Of course, it is wise to see your doctor if you are dealing with depression, especially if it is taking its toll to the point that you are finding it more and more difficult to cope with daily life.
There are a lot of factors that can lead to the development of depression, but a lot of people don’t realize that poor sleep might be one of them. It’s true! If you have been suffering from poor sleep lately, it might boost your risk of feeling depressed too.
Continue reading to learn about the link between depression and poor sleep. Then, if you notice that this might a problem in your life, don’t hesitate to speak with a doctor who can help you get the rest that you need to get your mental health back into a state of balance.
The Basics on Depression and Poor Sleep
If you’ve been struggling to get out of bed in the morning, you may want to speak with your doctor about the poor sleep depression connection. Though these may appear to be two entirely different conditions, many times it turns out that they are linked. While sometimes this means that depression is leading to insomnia, other times the reverse is true.
That said the poor sleep depression link is most often the fact that insomnia is one of the most common symptoms of the condition. Many people who are depressed find that they also struggle to fall asleep or to remain that way for enough time to wake up adequately rested. This leads them to suffer from fatigue which can make it much more challenging to overcome the depression condition as a whole. In fact, it often makes many of the other symptoms much worse.
The Impact of Poor Quality Sleep
According to the National Sleep Foundation, feeling excessively sleepy can actually have a negative impact on your mental wellbeing, especially if you are not getting anywhere from seven to nine hours of good quality sleep each night.
The lack of rest might impact everything from your emotions and your motivation level, to your energy level and your general outlook on life. For this reason, if you are suffering from a depressed mood, consider how many hours of sleep you have been getting lately, as the lack of sleep might be to blame.
Also, if you think that you need to be very sleep deprived before it affects your mental health, think again. Even just a small amount of sleep deprivation can, over time, wear away at your mental state.
Symptoms of sleep deprivation that may lead to depression include:
- Irritability
- A lack of enthusiasm
- Feeling empty
- Feeling a sadness that persists
How Does Sleep Affect Your Mind?
If you aren’t getting the right amount of sleep every night, it’s important to talk to your doctor so that you can figure out the cause of your sleep troubles.
When you don’t get enough sleep, and when the quality of your sleep is poor, your emotional state might change, leading to anxiety and clinical depression, along with other mental health problems.
Once those mental health problems take hold, they can cause even more sleep problems, so it becomes vicious cycle. So, for example, the more depressed you become, the worse your sleep might also become. You might end up sleeping too little or too much, thereby causing further imbalances in your body and mind.
Depression and Poor Sleep: An Interesting Link
It is important to note that there is a poor sleep depression relationship, this is not the only reason that a person can suffer from insomnia. In fact, there are many different reasons that individuals can fail to get a good night’s rest, and several of them are exceptionally common in the United States. In fact, in this country, almost one out of every three adults will experience insomnia in his or her lifetime. It is more common among women than men, and it becomes more frequent as people age.
Though the National Sleep Foundation says that the average adult should receive between seven and nine hours every night, most people receive only 6.9 hours. When depression is already present, this lack of adequate rest only makes the problems worse.
That said, while one of the poor sleep depression links is indeed a lack of sleep, there is another symptom of the condition which can involve oversleeping. This can also be highly disruptive to a person’s life, can equally lead to fatigue, and can make the other symptoms worse.
Though there isn’t always a poor sleep depression connection, the two are often suffered by the same patient. Clinical depression is a form of mood disorder that can leave an individual feeling hopeless, sad, worthless, and helpless. It isn’t just a matter of simply feeling blue once in a while. Instead, it involves intense emotions that are felt regularly and that can inhibit you from living your life as you normally would.
A Few Ways to Get Better Sleep
Have you been dealing with the consequences of poor quality rest? Then it’s time to start taking steps towards getting a better night’s sleep!
Here are a few strategies that you can try in order to improve your sleep:
- Take a product like Somnaprin, which you can purchase over the counter, in order to support your body’s ability to get the rest that it needs.
- Avoid sleeping in or staying up late. Instead, aim to go to bed at the same time each night, and try to wake up at the same time every morning.
- Nap only in the early afternoon, and do so for only 20 minutes. That way, napping won’t give you so much energy that you end up staying up later than you should.
- If you tend to feel sleepy after you have dinner, don’t take a nap. Instead, keep your body moving by doing things like chores around the house or going for a walk around the block.
- Avoid watching TV late at night, or using devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones that have bright screens.
- Make your room nice and dark when it’s time for bed.
- Avoid alcohol and caffeine in the evening and at night.
- Stick with exercising early in the day.
- Try various relaxation techniques before bed, such as deep breathing exercises and meditation.
Talking to Your Doctor Is Wise if You Suffer from Depression and Poor Sleep!
If you feel that you may suffer from either of these conditions, it is important to speak with your doctor as they could get worse, and they may be indicative of another underlying medical issue.
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