Natural Sleeping Aids

How does depression affect sleep?

“Insomnia is a very common feature of depression,” says Dr. Sinan Baran from the Sleep Disorders Center at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “About ninety percent of the patients who are depressed have insomnia, and about ten percent have hypersomnia, meaning they sleep longer or more than usual.”

People who suffer from depression tend to experience a less restorative sleep than those who are not. Depressives exhibit any or all of these types of insomnia: frequeny predawn awakenings, less deep sleep, and diminished overall sleep time. By far the most common type of insomnia experienced by a depressive is frequent predawn awakenings. Paul Hoagberg, executive director of the Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association (DRADA), suffers from a bipolar disorder. Throughout his life he has experienced the highs of mania and the lows of depression; however, his more serious problems have stemmed from his depressions. He describes the insomnia that accompanied his depressive episodes in this way: “Falling asleep would be okay, but at two or three in the morning I’d be awake with just a terrible, terrible feeling…F. Scott Fitzgerald, who I’m sure was a depressive and who of course medicated his depression with booze, once wrote, ‘In the dark of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning.’ A very good description.” During his depressions Hoagberg would lose the ability to concentrate and would experience a constant feeling of anguish. He says it was as though he wanted to “run out of my body and get away from myself.” His insomnia continued for the duration of his depression. Not surprisingly, when his depression eased, his sleep improved.

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