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For two decades, Francesco Benedetti, who heads the psychiatry and clinical psychobiology unit at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, has been investigating so-called wake therapy, in combination with bright light exposure and lithium, as a means of treating depression where drugs have often failed. As a result, psychiatrists in the USA, the UK and other European countries are starting to take notice, launching variations of it in their own clinics. These 'chronotherapies' seem to work by kick-starting a sluggish biological clock; in doing so, they're also shedding new light on the underlying pathology of depression, and on the function of sleep more generally.
"Sleep deprivation really has opposite effects in healthy people and those with depression," says Benedetti. If you're healthy and you don't sleep, you'll feel in a bad mood. But if you're depressed, it can prompt an immediate improvement in mood, and in cognitive abilities. But, Benedetti adds, there's a catch: once you go to sleep and catch up on those missed hours of sleep, you'll have a 95% chance of relapse.
So pulling more all-nighters makes me feel better?
Source: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180123-can-staying-awake-beat-depression
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday January 24 2018, @11:37PM (9 children)
Sleep deprivation's not good long term, at least not for me.
Concur, I lose now and then (about twice a month) a night of sleep, but after getting back my sleep I'm feeling shitty for days after.
Skipping sleep more than two nights a month not only mak ethe matter worse, but physiological side-effects are worrisome for my age (elevated and somehow irregular pulse)
What keeps me balanced: nicotine. Actually known for quite a long time, many smokers and non-smokers depressives respond well to nicotine [google.com].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday January 24 2018, @11:56PM (5 children)
I had similar sleep issues before I had a triple bypass about 3 years ago. Maybe once a month. That's totally gone now.
The only thing that keeps me from sleeping is coding or debugging late into the evening. I'll be chased all night by murderous broken function calls, buffer over runs, and branches to nowhere. Tylenol seems to suppress existential angst [smithsonianmag.com].
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:10AM (4 children)
Paracetamol, you mean? It makes me conscious I have a liver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Adamsjas on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:16AM (3 children)
One or two a month certainly won't hurt you as much as the anxiety keeping you awake.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:22AM (1 child)
I got adjusted to my anxiety, I let it be; sorta I'm able to detach from it - about 20 ciggies/day certainly helps with.
Lost sleep comes mainly from a certain amount of stress (some tech problem on its way to solution but still in early topics) or 'tklectual excitement (most of the time some crazy ideas unrelated to IT).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:11AM
Yeah, that certainly sounds healthier than an occasional paracetamol...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:51AM
Taking drugs for anxiety is asking for trouble. Unless you've got extreme anxiety and need the pills in order to get treated, it's a very, very bad idea.
Anxiety exists for a purpose, if you haven't been taught how to manage it without the pills, you're just masking it over. Anxiety is one of the areas where modern psychology does a pretty good job.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by chucky on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:12AM (2 children)
Yep, take nicotine away from me and... you don't want to know. But when it comes to sleep, I think that the big problem are fixed schedules.
What works for me is light. In summer, when the days are long, I don't care about sleep much, I can wake up with sunrise at 3:15 in the morning and feel fine. Close the curtains and I'll wake up with the alarm at 7 and the day will be bad. Sometimes just keeping the old ways would do better, wake up when it's light and go to bed when it's dark. Or simply wake up when you've had enough of sleep and go to bed when you're tired, take a nap in the middle of the day if needs to be.
But then, try keeping a 'natural sleep cycle' in present-day society => not working => not comfortable => not happy => depressed from not being able to live as you'd need, and it could be so simple.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:27AM
My degree is in Physics but I've been working as a coder since my Junior year back in the Pleistocene era.
This because I knew lots of coders - SCO was once really in Santa Cruz - and they all worked at night.
I decided that becoming a coder was my only hope for getting a real job.
I often sleep through one or two days a week on my current contract. I was at first quite mortified that I was being so flaky but then their Engineering VP came right out and said "I don't care how or when you work".
Strictly speaking it is illegal for consulting clients to set the hours that their consultants may work. It's one of the "20 Factors" that the IRS uses to determine whether you are a consultant or an employee.
That is, which kind you are, in the eyes of the IRS, has nothing to do with any job title you may have or what was in a contract you signed: whether your are an employee or a consultant - again in the IRS - is strictly defined by the relationship you have with your employer or client.
A while back this lead every last Microsoft contract programmer to sue MS for the job benefits that MS employees receive but that were denied to the contractors.
The contractors prevailed.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:28AM
(never pushed any to you in the first place)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford