Fais dodo

Sleep Therapy Is Expected to Gain a Wider Role in Depression Treatment

Studies showing how getting more sleep can improve depression recovery. Excellent news for depressed people, bad news for sleep-deprived mamas, if insomnia and being woken throughout the night have the same psychological effects!

Léon was a fabulous little sleeper until, at three months old, we all went to Grasse for a long weekend, and upon our return, were horrified to discover that his six hour night stretches were incrementally decreasing. The low-point was wakings every half hour. He is now five months, and we have managed to "improve" to wakings every three to four hours. But let's be honest here: waking up every three to four hours is not great. In fact, it is hard. And sometimes, usually when I'm brushing my teeth in front of the mirror, facing the fatigue in my blood-shot eyes encased by telling dark circles, I want desperately to book a night at the nearest hotel and sleep until my body doesn't feel geriatric, my brain mushy. 

That said, one of the more interesting aspects to the sleep therapy described in the article is challenging perceptions about not getting a good night of sleep. “If someone has the belief that if they don’t sleep, they’ll somehow fail the next day, I’ll ask, ‘What does failure mean? You’ll be slower at work, not get everything done, not make dinner?’ ” Dr. Harris said. “Then we’ll look at the 300 nights they didn’t sleep well over the past few years and find out they managed; it might not have been as pleasant as they liked, but they did not fail. That’s how we challenge those kinds of thoughts.”

This is fascinating! I am guilty of setting myself up for feeling less than optimistic about a day that follows poor sleep. If I take an objective (forgiving) view, however, I am actually doing a pretty good job keeping myself together on so little sleep. I still play with my boys and take walks and visit with friends and dance to music and manage to eat 3 square meals a day... I'm just not doing these things with a lot of verve and wit! Letting up on the pressure to perform and sparkle, and instead saying to myself, "I can do whatever I need to do, and even a few things I just want to do," well, that's just fine.