There’s More to Sleep than Bedtime

Google “sleep deprivation effects” and you get 1,777,777 reasons why staying up late is bad for you. It gives you high blood pressure. Disorients your metabolism. Makes you an accident waiting to happen. And when it comes to mental illness, it multiplies tenfold your risk of developing depressive and anxiety disorders. Depression and insomnia can be a chicken-and-egg problem: anxiety keeps you awake; lack of sleep increases your risk of developing full-blown depression. Many people with physically treatable sleep issues show significant emotional improvement once the apnea or restless leg syndrome is dealt with. Yet there are those who lack medical excuses for lying awake, who go to bed for eight hours every night, and who still have chronic insomnia and chronic depression. While we associate sleep deprivation issues with staying up late working, anxiety-based insomnia can deprive one of sleep even when, strictly speaking, one does everything right. Medical science actually recognizes both sleep onset insomnia (difficulty falling asleep) and sleep maintenance insomnia (difficulty staying asleep). A significant number of people with clinical depression manifest both forms. Personally, I’d need five figures to count the nights I’ve gotten into bed at 10:00, spent the next 60-90 minutes churning my brain over what needs doing tomorrow, finally fallen asleep only to wake two or three times with high-adrenaline dreams, and ended the night by drifting in and out of shallow-...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Anxiety Depression Diet & Nutrition Disorders General Healthy Living Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Personal Stories Psychology Sleep Insomnia restless leg syndrome Sleep apnea Sleeplessness worry Source Type: news