Sleeping and depression

[Robilas]

Does the amount of sleep affect your mood? Personally if I can't get enough sleep I feel very depressed and unmotivated because I don't have enough energy to do anything in the morning.


On the other hand oversleeping is even worse: if I sleep too much I feel like I've wasted precious time and my anxiety gets worse since I'm running out of time. Does sleeping too much or too little affect your mood?

 

[MellowCat]

They effect my mood in similar ways, Robilas. I would agree that too much sleep is worse. When I was at my worst with depression, I would go to bed around 10:00 and sleep straight for twelve or fourteen hours. Even when I woke up, sometimes I didn't get out of bed for a few hours after that, or I'd get up and use the bathroom adn grab food and then crawl back in. There's definitely a balance to the right amount of sleep and wakefulness.

 

[Steph4real]

I have to get just the right amount of sleep to feel better, but depression effects my sleep cycle so much that it makes it difficult. The late-sleeping thing is a big issue for me. I usually don't get tired until late, or I lay in bed without being able to sleep for hours, then by the time I fall asleep I can't wake up until late the next day. I've noticed when I get up early I do feel better, but it only works when nothing triggers a bad mood for me. Once that happens, I just want to sleep so I don't have to deal with reality!

 

[Laneorexorcist]

It definitely does. When I don't get enough sleep, I'm angry and I don't work as I should all the day, and all, the day I'm looking forward to get to sleep, and having that urge makes me feel lazy, even if I'm extremely tired.


On the other hand, when I sleep too much I am relaxed and on a good mood all day, it doesn't really makes me feel more depressed, but when I take naps during the day, even if it's more half hour I start feeling the depression coming to me again, without mentioning that I suffer from sleep paralysis only when I take naps... I'm not a friend of naps at all.

 

[fuzyon]

Most of the time sleep does affect my mood, I try to sleep at least 8 hours a day but that doesn't always happen, there are days that I only sleep for 4-5 hours because I have a lot of work ahead of me and I need to get it done, needless to say I'm not the friendliest person when I don't get enough sleep but there are days that I feel just fine, but that's probably because of the adrenaline, haha.

 

[rz3300]

Well I am pretty similar to Steph4real - and I need the just the right amount, which really makes it difficult. Of course, then I start to wonder if it is internal, and my mind is making me think that I am off, and then it is just a whole cycle. That means, though, that too little, or too much, sleep can really affect in me in negative ways. I start to feel off, and a bit sluggish and I am not able to perform as well. It is usually about 7 and a half hours and I am good to go.

 

[RichE8475]

I have often wondered about this question myself. However, I do not think it matters if I sleep to much or to little. I am always at one end of the spectrum. There never seems to be a happy medium for me. I am extremely anxious or really depressed and tired. I have read studies that show that adults only need six hours of sleep. When I was younger I was able to function with that little amount of sleep. I am about to be 41, and I would just like to have one day that I feel normal. Yet, what is normal? Are there certain things that you do to find the right amount of sleep? If so, please let me know.

 

[Robilas]

Even when I woke up' date=' sometimes I didn't get out of bed for a few hours after that[/quote']
This happens to me too! Even if I wake up early to the sound of my alarm I still lay down in the bed doing basically nothing for hours. It's even worse than oversleeping because you don't get actual rest, and even after getting out of the bed you are still feeling sleepy. What worked for me was moving my alarm far away from the bed, so I had to eventually get up to set it off.

 

[AnnaHasATaco]

Yep, I hate oversleeping because it makes me feel so worthless and unproductive. Unfortunately, I do oversleep frequently because I love escaping from my life... the hard part is waking up.

 

[Bea]

Oftentimes I wonder if sleeping affects my mood or if my mood affects my sleeping. I read somewhere that a sign of depression is you spend a lot of your time sleeping - but at the same time, like you guys, I feel so guilty and depressed if I sleep too much, so it's a vicious cycle. I get moody and snappy if I'm too tired from lack of sleep, and the exhaustion causes me to just lose productivity. And if I oversleep, I also feel like I wasted away a perfectly fine day.


Whenever I have those phases where I stay in bed for a long time after I wake up, I make sure to set my alarm kinda early. That way I can still spend some time in bed awake during the morning, but not feel like I wasted so much time doing nothing when I finally get around to dragging myself out of bed.

 

[John Snort]

There are people who'll sleep more when they are depressed while there are others who'll not get any sleep at all. Though it is advisable for someone who is depressed to get enough sleep, that's about as far at it should go. Get eight hours of sleep. Any more and you'll find that there important things you might neglect. Any less and the negative thoughts in your mind will make your depression worse. That said, I have a tendency to oversleep on Mondays for some reason and when I do, I'll waste the rest of the day and as a result I'll get nothing done that week. That's why these days even if I don't feel like getting up early on Monday I have to force myself up because I know what happens if I don't.

 

[joshposh]

Oversleeping does make me feel very lazy and irritable. Besides the obvious, personally I feel like I have wasted hours, when I could of been doing something more constructive then going over 8 hours of sleep. There is a study that shows, as you get older you tend to need less sleep every night. I have noticed this in the past decade or so. I sleep less and I get a lot more done. Rarely do I get the oversleeping days.

 

[EdmondA]

I get angry with myself when I sleep in. I also get angry with myself if I get up early, but then am too tired to do things that need doing later on in the day. It is a no win scenario for me unfortunately. Hopefully, I can find a happy medium!

 

[mariaanca]

This is so familiar to me too. If I don't sleep enough I get nervous, and I feel tired all day. If I sleep to long I get up feeling tired.


I always think about the time I have wasted by sleeping an extra hour, but I always end up doing it again. So it's like a vicious cycle.


I do think that my quality of sleep is also affected by what I eat in the day. Once in a while I wake up feeling I had a great sleep, but those times are rare.

 

[Robilas]

I do think that my quality of sleep is also affected by what I eat in the day.

Can you elaborate on this point? Sometimes it happens to mee too: if I eat too much I have troubles falling asleep (well, more than usual) so I get less sleeping time and I don't feel rested at all in the morning. That's why I mostly have light dinners and eat more during the day, especially in the morning. On top of that I need to totally avoid some food after lunch, for example peppers.

 

[mariaanca]

Can you elaborate on this point? Sometimes it happens to mee too: if I eat too much I have troubles falling asleep (well, more than usual) so I get less sleeping time and I don't feel rested at all in the morning. That's why I mostly have light dinners and eat more during the day, especially in the morning. On top of that I need to totally avoid some food after lunch, for example peppers.

I recently read a book by Dr. Hiromi Shinya The enzyme factor and he confirmed what I was thinking. You have to eat dinner 4 hours before you go to bed because your don't want your stomach to be active.Personally I think 4 hours is a bit to much for me but when I have my last meal 2 hours before I go to sleep I definitely wake up better in the morning.


Another thing is to have a light dinner. I'm a vegetarian for 3 years and I don't have the problem of eating meat at dinner. But when I was eating meat for dinner I had many dreams and woke up all the time in the night.


There might be food that cause reactions like in your case peppers.

 

[nytegeek]

Depression makes it hard for me to fall asleep, but once I get to sleep I will oversleep. Getting out of bed seems almost an impossible task, which feeds into not being able to fall asleep again the next night. It's a perfect little viscous circle that is difficult to break.

 

[tiffanylynette]

Depression makes it hard for me to fall asleep' date=' but once I get to sleep I will oversleep. Getting out of bed seems almost an impossible task, which feeds into not being able to fall asleep again the next night. It's a perfect little viscous circle that is difficult to break.[/quote']
I agree. This is how I am when my depression kicks in. It is very hard for me to fall asleep and even harder to wake up when I do. It's like a never ending cycle. I try to lay down earlier then usual after taking a bath or shower, I cut off lights, the TV and put my phone away. I still don't get to sleep as early as I would like but I get there earlier than usual. I also read a book or write to help me unwind and clear my mind.

 

[amy88]

For me it's a pretty fine line between too much and not enough. If I sleep less than 7 hours I find that I am all kinds of grouchy, snappy, angry at the world - and that feeds into my depression. If I sleep too much, it's almost like it just makes me lazier and then I also end up feeling down and worthless.


I would say for me, between 7-8.5 hours is about right. Any more or less and I don't do so great!

 

[Robilas]

I recently read a book by Dr. Hiromi Shinya The enzyme factor and he confirmed what I was thinking. You have to eat dinner 4 hours before you go to bed because your don't want your stomach to be active.Personally I think 4 hours is a bit to much for me but when I have my last meal 2 hours before I go to sleep I definitely wake up better in the morning.


Another thing is to have a light dinner. I'm a vegetarian for 3 years and I don't have the problem of eating meat at dinner. But when I was eating meat for dinner I had many dreams and woke up all the time in the night.


There might be food that cause reactions like in your case peppers.

Thanks for the reply! I will try to read that book because it seems interesting. I agree that maybe having dinner 4 hours before sleeping is really too much but it probably depends on your metabolism. Usually I don't remember my dreams the morning after, but when I do is because I couldn't sleep well because of them, probably because I ate too much or too late at dinner.


I'm not sure if this is an appropriate question, so I apologize in advance. Do you think that being a vegetarian helps with sleeping problems? Lately I've been changing my diet and I'm eating less and less meat (especially at dinner), and I am definitely sleeping better.