Many people with depression have also sleeping problems. It is common that people with depression can’t sleep well or they sleep too much, they oversleep or sleep all day.
Sleep difficulties is one of the symptoms of depression, but it doesn’t mean that every person who can’t sleep or sleeps too much is depressed.
Not enough sleep leads to worsening of cognitive performance, and becoming very fatigued. The mind cannot work as efficiently. Too little sleep over a longer term is contributing to developing different types of health conditions.
Lack of sleep is bad for your health. It suppresses your immune system. People who don’t get quality sleep or enough sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus, such as a common cold virus. Lack of sleep can also affect how fast you recover if you do get sick.
A person who wants to be productive and stay healthy needs regular good quality sleep, not too little and not too much. Most healthy adults need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night to function at their best. It can vary from person to person.
A person, who is depressed and sleeps all day, will definitely get the recommendation from a doctor or therapist to make various adjustments and changes to stop oversleeping in order to support the process of coming out of depression.
Depression can’t sleep / sleep all day
Whether you have or don’t have depression, but you can’t sleep, the approach is the same – identify possible reasons and do changes accordingly – in your environment, in your lifestyle, in your “before going to bed” routine, what you can do when you wake up during the night. There are several different reasons or factors, which can cause not being able to sleep. Often one has to try several things, before he finds out what works for him and what doesn’t. The main categories to look at are: physical (imbalances, pain), mental (overactive mind, bothering thoughts), environmental (noise, brightness, level of comfort, quality of air).
Here is a list of recommendations for those who struggle with sleep problems and insomnia. These things help, but because individual humans are unique (dna, lifestyle and habits, personality, way of thinking, beliefs), we are not 100% the same, so in the end you have to find out what works for you best. If one thing works for somebody it doesn’t automatically mean it will work for everybody, and if it works for you it doesn’t mean it is the only and best solution that will work for everybody else too. Nevertheless, larger groups of people have confirmed these things to be helpful.
List of recommendations to improve your sleep:
- CBD oil
- L-Tryptophan
- Aura spray
- Bach flower essences remedies: http://www.flowersociety.org/insomnia.htm
- Bach Rescue Sleep https://www.amazon.com/Rescue-Sleep-Bach-Flower-Essences/dp/B00126B4T2
- Taking a relaxing bath before going to bed, or at least a foot bath 10min with zechstein salt or epsom salt and sea salt, and some essential oils like lavender
- Guided progressive relaxation before sleep (listen to an audio, once you know how it is done, you can do it on your own, but you may prefer listening to a guided audio that walks your through all the steps while listening to supportive relaxing music)
- Some who never received a chakras and aura balancing and cleanse before in their life, for example via distant energy healing (reikimastersami, masterkenji), often report very positive changes/effects also on their ability and quality of sleep (not something do to on a daily basis, but rather 1x per month, and as an option if somebody tried many things already and nothing worked yet)
- Suitable breathing exercises before going to bed, minimum 3 deep slow breaths in through the nose out through the mouth
- Meditating before going to bed (before meditating doing breathing exercises helps to calm the mind and makes meditating easier, you can find a chapter about meditation also in the free ebook “Quest for a Depression-free Life, a Practical Guidebook”)
- Good fresh oxygen in the room (if possible sleep with window open, or at least bring in new fresh air before going to sleep)
- Avoid looking at bright screen electronic devices before going to bed, it can stop your brain producing melatonin and thus preventing a restful sleep
- Absolute darkness while falling asleep and sleeping (if not possible you may consider using a sleep eye mask) and a great way of waking up is with progressive brightening using a specialized lamp for it “wake-up light therapy alarm clock”. Darkness is essential to sleep. The absence of light sends a critical signal to the body that it is time to rest. Artificial light after dark can send wake-up messages to the brain, suppressing the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and making it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.
- Type and quality of the mattress you are sleeping on (I remember, once I was on a business trip with two colleagues, and all three of us had a separate room. Next day morning we met for breakfast at the hotel where we stayed and the first thing everybody wanted to tell the others was “wow, I had an amazing sleep, the mattress is incredible”. All of us had such a great sleep and we all had the feeling it was thanks to the mattress. I heard also other stories where people come visit friends or family members, and they sleep on a different mattress for a couple of days and they feel a huge difference thanks to it.)
- Don’t eat solid food just before going to bed, don’t overeat in the evening
- Importance of going to bed before midnight
- Importance of waking up always at the same time in the morning
- Extra tip to try out once or do occasionally: floating wellness/spa (new type of full body relaxation, you float in water which contains different types of salt)
- Listening to sleep improving self-hypnosis audio to calm the mind, the thoughts, and positively affect the subconscious mind
- Using a PEMF mat before and/or during sleep, it also gives relief from different types of pain, read more about PEMF for sleep disorders
The recommended way of going through the list is to try out one thing at a time for three consecutive days, before trying the next thing. Ideally, you can print out the list and write your notes to it as you experiment with some of the items, so that you record your results.
Which items to start with? You can start with those, which are free, those, which are cheapest, those you feel most attracted towards such as based on further research and reading user’s testimonials.
Setting a positive intention/wish every night before falling asleep is something to consider.
You can also consider exploring and practicing conscious lucid dreaming and out of body experiences if it interests you (https://obe4u.com).
Regular, good quality, deep, restful, right amount of (not too little, not too much) sleep is an important factor for health and overall well-being and being able to perform at your best and enjoy waking life more. If you can improve the quality of your sleep, it makes sense to do so and experiment with making certain changes. You can live a life where 1/3 of it is sleeping either with a below average sleep experience, average, or above average daily sleep experience. We have one life to make the best out of it. We can make the best out of sleeping too, if we are willing to do something actively about it. Learn, research, experiment with certain recommendations. If your average sleep quality is 40%-60%, you may enjoy life more with a 60%-80% or more sleep quality and even live longer thanks to it due to better health. If you are looking for a present for yourself for your birthday or for Christmas, you may put “improve the quality of my sleep experience” on the list, because you deserve a better sleep and the best sleep. You can perform better, inspire and motivate people more, if you are well rested, recharged and in a better mood, thanks to having a good night sleep on a regular basis.