Sleep and Depression

[listener1987]

Don't forget there are tons of reasons besides mental illness that can cause excessive sleep! I have MS and sleep a LOT. I mean, a nap almost every day. How about when people have a regular headache, or spend the day doing hard physical labor or something emotionally exhausting? Someone mentioned medication side effects; someone else mentioned poor sleep habits. Alcoholism or drug addiction could have an effect too. Someone reminded us that everyone's bodies are different, and some can function on less sleep than others, unrelated to depression.


I do agree that oversleeping can be a symptom of depression. I've experienced that myself! But it can't be the only diagnostic tool.

 

[x0xLikeMex0x]

Anyone else also tracking sleep?


I use an app to track my sleeping habits. I've set my optimal sleeping goal to 8 hours like a normal adult should sleep. It calculates how long I sleep a night and my sleeping debt. Also, I have an overview on my other sleeping habits like when I usually go to sleep and when I wake up.


Currently my sleep debt is 4 hours. It was 10 hours in the end of last week, but since I managed to hurt my leg and I'm currenly on sick leave, I've had a chance to get more sleep. Not that I'm an insomniac, but I usually find it hard to go bed early, so I tend to fall asleep around 1-2 am.


I think the longest I've ever slept was around 18 hours straight.

 

[Panic57]

There have been a couple of small studies that shows that some people need ten or eleven hours to function properly while others can get away with five or six. It's just that the average person usually needs about eight or nine hours. So how many hours does your friend sleep in a day? I keep weird sleeping hours because I tend to work from ten to one the next day. But during school my hours were even crazier. If your friend has a crazy work schedule that could explain the crazy hours. But if not, they might have a problem going to sleep. So while they go to be at ten, they don't actually fall asleep until midnight or later. I used to be that way in high school. Your friend might need to learn how to properly unwind mentally before falling to sleep or use that time to work or do a hobby instead of tossing and turning in bed. But if your friend is sleeping for long periods, it could be depression but it might be another problem that needs to be diagnosed with a proper doctor.

 

[sidney]

A quick google search seems to say that oversleeping is indeed a sign of depression, so maybe your friend was really depressed that time. I remember also sleeping longer than usual when I feel sad or even irritated, so that I won't have to deal with such feelings when I'm conscious.

 

[audrinaa]

I know lately I have been worrying about money and different things and I have not slept that well. I want to sleep more then I do, but I just can't stay asleep once i fall asleep and once I wake back up I end up staying up for at least two hours. I hate that. I know that when I am depressed and not caring about anything I can sleep for days.

 

[fuzyon]

Well I don't know if sleeping for long periods of time correlates with depression but my sleep schedule was always messed up (and still kind of is) because of my anxiety and depression issues. Sometimes you are really tired but can't go to bed because your head is full of negative thoughts so you end up staying awake for longer than you expected and that can lead to weird sleeping patterns. There are diseases that can make you really sleepy so it would be good for your friend to get checked out just in case.

 

[Ashley0323]

Yes, sleep and depression are definitely linked. I often times, find myself feeling down or depressed and when those times occur, I just want to sleep my days away. Before I had kids, I would litterally sleep a week straight, only waking to get a drink, or use the restroom, then right back to sleep. Now that I have three little monsters, I am no longer allowed to sleep like this lol I am awake, no matter my mood or how I am feeling, which I am thankful for.

 

[SirJoe]

I think there is more to depression then just sleeping too much. Sure it is one of the reported symptoms but I think it's more complex then that.

 

[Alexandoy]

I think sleep is related to depression. A depressed person tends to develop a different sleeping habit or sleep pattern that is not really unusual but not normal. When my wife was somewhat demoted in function (not in position title though) in the office, I readily noticed the budding depression. I know she was crying in secret and wouldn't want to show me but her sleepless nights revealed her problem to me. She would drop down on the bed before 9pm and wake up at midnight to ponder. And when I wake up, we would talk of other things but not her problem at her job. But eventually she confessed to me that she was thinking of resigning from her job. So that's clearly an indication of desperation on her part. Fortunately, she was able to surpass that with my support. And with the sleep pattern, that's what I am monitoring now. So far, so good with her sleeping hours. 

 

[jy76]

Possibly the person is simply sick, not depressed.  When I get sick, I often sleep a lot.  Possibly the source may be the fact the body is trying to recover.  


Note, when a body is recovering from sickness, it uses more energy.  That fact explains why people are so tired.

 

[pwarbi]

You are right and we do sleep more if we are unwell and that's just one of the ways that the body recovers, but if we have been doing that for a longer period of time then I do think that there can be some cause for concern. Just because people might have an irregular sleeping pattern doesn't mean they are automatically depressed of course, but I do think that if there isn't an actual reason behind it then there could be an underlying factor there that needs looking at.


Even a person who doesn't work or exert themselves throughout the day ill still need some sort of sleeping routine and if they don't have one then there must be a reason behind that.

 

[thisnthat]

It can be a sign of depression, but there are also many physical medical issues that can cause fatigue. If the person doesn't have other symptoms of depression, ruling out other conditions first may be more beneficial. Sometimes, docs are too quick to give out anti-depressants before making sure there aren't other issues. If he sleeps like that on a regular basis, he should probably see somebody about that. If it was a one time thing, it may have just been situational (maybe something bad happened leaving him temporarily depressed but not clinically depressed).

 

[Natasha0717]

It could mean depression, or I think it could also mean that maybe the individual has (even temporarily) conquered their sleep/anxiety problems, and they're just finally trying to catch up on all of that lost sleep.


Sometimes I fall into this TERRIBLE sleep cycle that I try to avoid at all costs, yet it does happen about once or twice a year.  :wacko:  I take an innocent nap around 9 p.m.  This nap will accidentally turn into a 4-hour sleep cycle (or half a sleep cycle)...and then when I try to go back to sleep a few hours later, I can only sleep another 4 hours.  So my sleeping turns into 2 chunks.  Both only 4 hours.  And let me tell you, you do not and will not feel rested at all during this biphasic style of sleeping.  The only way to stop it, is to shorten one of the cycles (which is torture,) and then that will cause you to need more sleep for the next cycle, and little by little, you will get it all back into one big long cycle, as it should be. But boy, it sure does take some time.  And great effort. So be careful with naps...the long naps may get you into trouble.  They sure do get me into trouble! 


:sleep:  +  :sleep:  =  hmy:

 

[to7update]

I had a couple of depressions in the past and I felt like doing nothing, but sleeping and watching TV. Like everyone else said, the more I slept, the more I wanted to sleep, so this become a vicious cycle. Pretty much like you are saying @Natasha0717 I didn't feel rested after sleeping, but more and more tired. So sleeping more is not a solution, is a symptom of depression.

 

[tomorrow]

Sometimes I sleep to long, but I don’t believe it is something related to depression or something like that in my case. I am a night owl and stay awake late at night. Sometimes I can’t even sleep and the next day I may sleep for longer hours than normal. I think it is quite normal as I feel totally rejuvenated when I wake up from long hours of sleep.

I think lack of sleep cannot ignite depression but it can worsen the situation if you are already suffering from depression. I read somewhere that if you are not able to sleep properly it may be due to depression. So it is not a cause, but a symptom.

 

[TheKnight]

I think it's true because I experienced this when I was the most depressed in my life. In my happy times, I used to sleep normally and wake up with not much work or stress. When I feel depressed, I want the day to be over, I feel a lot more tired, and I tend to sleep earlier and a lot longer than I usually would. Depression really gets me tired and sleepy. I think it's not just an emotion but it also zaps your energy.

 

[to7update]

Usually when we have concerns our sleep patterns get changed. If we are depressed we tend to sleep more and more like in a spiral, but if we have lighter concerns we might even sleep less and get insomnia, it has happened to me somewhat often lately. To snap out of sleeping too much I'd say to find a motivation or an activity to get us out of bed.

 

[fuzyon]

I was drunk once and slept for 16 hours, which was pretty interesting since I was confused for a whole day. I also once slept for a full day after being sleep deprived for 3, I had many projects going on and couldn't get sleep at all, only a couple of really short naps. Depression can definitely make you sleep more however it can also make you sleep less due to all the stress.

 

[tyche]

Oversleeping is quite normal for sad people, because they don't want to face reality as much as possible, so they prefer to temporarily forget it by oversleeping or drinking or engaging in other vices like drugs. I also experience that occasionally, but I only sleep for around 10 to 11 hours at the most.