This master clock can be found in the brain's suprachiasmatic nucleus. In animals, populations of nerve cells have rhythmic activity thought to be the basis of an internally generated timekeeper. These observations have led many researchers to ask what the connection between sleep and mood is and what biological determinants underlie this relation.Īll creatures sleep-or at least exhibit a circadian rhythm based on the earth's light-dark cycle. People often cope by taking daytime naps, which makes falling asleep at night difficult, feeding the cycle of sleep dysregulation. They exacerbate fatigue and cognitive deficits, which are also core symptoms, making daily functioning even more challenging.
Sleep issues are a core symptom of depression. Still, it can help bring relief before medication kicks in. The treatment is not for everyone-elderly patients and those with cognitive impairment, for instance, would not be good candidates-nor should people try it without a clinician's guidance. As a 2015 review in Current Psychiatry Reports noted, therapies that manipulate sleep can significantly improve depressive symptoms. Although it seems counterintuitive, an old and often forgotten approach to improving mood rapidly involves short-term sleep deprivation. In recent years research has focused on trying to find treatments that could improve symptoms within days as opposed to weeks. Standard antidepressant therapies are often effective in treating depression, but it takes time for them to work. I can barely keep my eyes open as it is, and you want me to pull an all-nighter?” “How do you feel about skipping a few nights of sleep?” “Well, there is one strategy we could try,” I said.
“Isn't there something that will work faster?” she lamented. She had already fallen behind on work, the holidays were coming up, and she did not want to put her life on hold for this depression any longer. Jodi agreed but was disappointed to learn it might be anywhere from four to six weeks before her medication took effect. I recommended that she start on an antidepressant immediately. Thankfully, she was not having thoughts of hurting herself, and because she had good support from her family and friends, she would not need to be hospitalized. When she came to see me, I confirmed what Jodi already suspected: she had relapsed into a major depressive episode. Her thoughts circled around the same unpleasant memories and nagging fears. Yet she found herself back in that dark place, barely eating and unable to concentrate enough to read even a short paragraph. Now in her late 30s, she had been off antidepressants for years. She had experienced major depression twice before, once in college and again in her late 20s after a breakup. Jodi knows she should have recognized these warning signs sooner. Her performance at work had also been suffering she began missing days because she just couldn't get out of bed. Although she was constantly exhausted, she could not get a good night's sleep she would toss and turn and still feel tired even when she slept in. She no longer enjoyed activities that were usually the highlight of her day: story time with her children, chatting on the phone with her mom, reading a book. Strapped for time, she started neglecting her usual self-care routines-eating healthy, exercising, taking time to relax. Jodi (not the patient's real name) had been feeling more stressed between meeting the growing demands of her high-stakes job in business management and shouldering more chores while her husband was away on business trips.
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