The New York Times – Health – By BENEDICT CAREY – Published: November 18, 2013
Gosh, how rare is it that a solution turns out to be so much more simple than it appears to be? Early research on the impact of poor sleep patters on depression is hopeful, makes sense, but seems too good to be true. Because the cognitive and behavioral changes that the research suggests are, in fact, relatively easy to implement, it’s worth doing.
The relationship between insomnia and depression is bidirectional and, therefore, self-perpetuating: lying awake at night makes us depressed (“If you have a depression, you’re often awake all night, it’s extremely lonely, it’s dark, you’re aware every moment that the world around you is sleeping, every concern you have is magnified”) and being depressed, flooded with feelings of loneliness and hopelessness, can keep us awake.
While the researchers busy themselves with verifying the science behind all of this, here’s my proposed plan: Those who are depressed as well as those who just know that their lives would be more pleasurable, their moods more stable, their ability to focus more accessible, their temperament more approachable, if they were better rested on a regular basis, make the simple changes suggested in Benedict Carey’s New York Times article – Sleep Therapy Seen as an Aid for Depression.
I ran the cost/benefit analytics… we’ll all be better off.