Posted by Dinah on March 15, 2012, at 10:43:45
I'm not meaning to double post this, but I'm also interested in the biological part of this.
I recently was feeling very depressed. I already knew that sleep deprivation can bring on mild hypomania in me. But apparently it can reset my circadian rhythm to help depression as well.
When I was feeling so depressed, I noticed that I was waking up early and feeling most capable in the morning. I'm a night person (or at least I'm not a morning person) so this wasn't my normal pattern. After a few nights of little or no sleep, I'm back to feeling incapable of anything until late morning, but not particularly depressed. I'm still feeling a bit apathetic and my concentration is poor, but that's not so bad.
I think I glanced at a news article saying that Lithium may work by regulating circadian rhythms of people with bipolar disorder. I'm sort of bipolarish, if not actually meeting the criteria of I or II. It's an interesting thought that I might be able to change mood trends by trying to reset my personal clock.
Has anyone managed to successfully make this part of their treatment plan? Is it a sound theory?
poster:Dinah
thread:1013142
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120302/msgs/1013142.html