How Does Depression Impact Sleep?

The negative effects of depression on your general health are undeniable. Mood swings, food and water intake, level of physical activity, blood pressure, immune system, and heart rate, can all be affected. But did you know that depression can also affect your sleep patterns?

At Genesis Psychiatric Solutions, board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Ifeanyi Olele provides screening, diagnosis, and treatment for depression for patients in the greater Washington, DC, area. If depression is affecting your ability to get restful sleep, we can help.

Depression basics

Depression is a mental illness that can make you feel sad, angry, defeated, hopeless, worthless, or a combination of some or all of these things. You might experience severe mood swings, ranging from euphoric to suicidal in the space of a single day. 

Sometimes even the things you love doing most may hold no interest for you, or you could find yourself full of anxiety and jumping from one thing to the next with no real joy or productivity.

Depression and sleep 

For many people with depression, it doesn’t take long until physical symptoms start to show up, such as:

• Loss of appetite and weight changes
• Failure to maintain basic hygiene
• A lack of libido
• Disrupted or unrestful sleep followed by chronic fatigue

Three of four adult patients with depression have insomnia. That means you either can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, or both. Lack of good sleep directly affects mood, leading to a 31% reduction in positive mood the following day. 

Treating depression and sleep disorder

Depression and sleep disorders are bidirectional, meaning having one makes the other worse, and vice versa. You can easily get trapped in a vicious cycle of lack of sleep making depression worse and depression making it difficult to get enough rest. 

To treat depression accompanied by a sleep disorder, Dr. Olele may use a combination of medicine and psychotherapy. When you change your behaviors and use the bedroom only for sleep, you associate the bed with rest. Creating a bedtime ritual designed to help your brain slow down and turn off can help as well.  

It can take some time to find a combination of treatments that works for you, but at Genesis Psychiatric Solutions, we’re dedicated to helping you find your way. 

If you’re struggling with depression and a sleep disorder, get in touch with us by calling the location closest to you or requesting a consultation online. We have offices in Fairfax and Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, DC.