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Thursday, September 21, 2017

Sleep deprivation might be the antidote for depression

Depression keeping you up at night? Staying awake may be the key to rapidly improving your mood.

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania looked back at decades’ worth of studies on sleep deprivation and concluded it can temporarily improve symptoms of depression in up to 50 percent of people.

All forms of sleep deprivation, ranging from partial (20 to 21 hours without sleep) to total (up to 36 hours), were an effective anti-depressant for patients across demographics, according to the analysis of 66 English-language studies on the topic from 1974 to 2016. What’s more, patients reported feeling better within as little as 24 hours after treatment.

“These studies in our analysis show that sleep deprivation is effective for many populations,” the study’s lead author, Elaine Boland, a clinical associate and research psychologist at the Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, told Penn Medicine.

“Regardless of how the response was quantified, how the sleep deprivation was delivered, or the type of depression the subject was experiencing, we found a nearly equivalent response rate,” she said.

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8 comments:

  1. Well, when my manic-depressive ex-wife would stay awake for 3 days around the clock drinking and taking her "Medication", and cheering about Lorena Bobbitt when we had 3 kids and I had to get my sleep to work 6 days a week to support the fiasco, I will attest that it definitely did nothing for the manic side, and only made me pray for the depressive side, which never seemed to materialize.

    But, that's just me.

    Thankfully, I and the kids have had 18 years of peace since then...

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    1. Holy Crap....we musta had the same ex wives....my story is exactly like yours except the number of kids

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  2. Yes sleep ! Yes. Night night rock a by. No pills mind control. (Depressed) sad lonely. Sweets go to sleep ! Tuck tuck in nighty.

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  3. I already have sleep deprivation from chronic pain. And the pain pills don't help.

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  4. 7:50, is that you, Ex-wife? Sure sounds like you.

    738

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  5. People with to much time on their hands to sit around and dwell on their feeling s have depression.

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  6. No. Anyone with depression knows one of the symptoms is you can not sleep. so why would depriving sleep help? I might get 3 hours a night. It just makes it worse.

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  7. Of course they feel better after being awake for 36 hours when they get to sleep. What kind of dumb study is this?

    ReplyDelete

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