Depression and sleep
Well, is depression like sleep? I think the two have similarities and can be compared to each other.
People don’t understand depression and people don’t understand different sleep habits.
Depression can lead to sleeplessness and sleeplessness can lead to depression. And depression can cause someone to have a ridiculous amount of sleep.
If you know someone close to you is suffering depression, it doesn’t help your sleep habits – due to worry and stress and the dynamics of the relationship changing.
Depression takes time to correct and changing sleep habits also takes time.
We don’t make good decisions when we are suffering from depression and likewise when we are sleep deprived our decision making suffers.
We excuse behaviours when people are depressed or sleep deprived? However, how far do we excuse the behaviour? I guess for as long as the person is trying to help his or herself.
We often hear marriages or relationships break down due to depression. It would sound weird if we heard a marriage broke down due to sleep deprivation or sleep excess! Nevertheless, the truth is sleep issues definitely play a massive part in depression.
My marriage ended in divorce. My ex-husband suffered severe depression and due to his medication he slept, if not constantly – a lot. So he slept and this was his relief. And obviously when you are very depressed medication plays a part in who you are. The problem for some is they ask themselves – is this still the person and I believe yes it is. Depression cannot be an excuse to continue to fail and not work harder. Of course it is hard and there will be dark days, weeks and months and continuously. However, when this person has a green light, even a slight one, they know they must fight and people who love them know this too. I think people who stay depressed for a very long time, for one reason or another, are not actually depressed, but they are a depressive person. (I am not sure if this message is clear – but one thing is true – depression and sleep <too much or too little> are related!!!)
Susan says
Sleep is very important to all of us, but sleeping would be really a big problem if we are stressed especially if we are depressed. Shall we say mental disorders can affect our sleeping habit, it would be hard for us to have a good rest and sleep because we have a weary and confused mind. Depression maybe a tricky thing but somehow it is not that hard to deal with it, we just need to have a strong mind and personality.