Posted by OldSchool on March 13, 2002, at 20:56:03
In reply to Heard of staying awake 24 hours to rid depression?, posted by Janelle on March 13, 2002, at 19:02:56
> I have this reversed day-night thing with my body, meaning that I feel awful during the day, all I want to do is lay down, rest and try to sleep but then at night (especially late at night) I seem to perk up and feel almost *normal*. My sister read somewhere awhile back that if a depressed person stays awake for 24 hours they can re-set their body clock and rid themselves of the depression (which is often worse in the am and lifts in the pm). Has anyone heard of this?? Thanks.
The above is totally untrue. In fact its the opposite. You need sleep for your health. Sleep is your body's "damage control" system. Sleep is when your body and brain recover and rebuild for the next day. If you are chronically sleep deprived, for whatever reason, you arent going to be healthy.Also, severe sleep deprivation is one of the things which can cause psychosis to develop. Sleep deprivation is one of the worst things you can do for depression. If you stay awake long enough (four or five days), you will probably start to hallucinate.
What will make depression go away is getting good quality sleep for a change. Not sleep deprivation...that just worsens it.
Old School
poster:OldSchool
thread:97828
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020313/msgs/97846.html