6 ms·

How sleep and mental health are linked in the brain

135 points by miolini 11y ago

xlayn 11y ago
When you see the suspense/terror movie the Babadook... you could as well be seeing a documentary from the perspective of someone who is sleep deprived. I remember the words of a psychiatrist... whenever someone comes with any problem the first thing they must is sleep.
dreamdu5t 11y ago
This was a terrible article, and did not explain any link to mental illness.
- DrScump 11y ago
  Did you miss the entire "Sleep disruption in mental illness" section?
  - noButSeriously 11y ago
    This is pop-psychology garbage. Pat yourself on the back and feel good about agreeing with something obvious. Drugs are bad, m'kay. Sleep deprivation is bad, m'kay? This is linked to that. Broad sweeping statistics seem to indicate whatever. Someday science will know more, but gosh Mr. Science sure could know a lot more right now. So many millions of numbers, and then there's people who do such and such. We're only beginning to unravel the mysteries of faith. Not much to say about why brain cells die. Not much to say about the specific mechanics of any direct outcome, or why the brain actually needs up to a third of it's time wound down to a state of minimal activity, or what really happens during that downtime. But 99% of all boogey men are sleep deprived. Furthermore here is a glossary of mental illnesses from the hall of fame of DSM V diagnosis, that everyone's sure to recognize, and sleep deprivation can be tied to all of them with delicious weasle words. Yay!
    - DrScump 11y ago
      If you disagree with the content there, fine; I was responding to the above comment that the reference to mental illness wasn't there.
bpchaps 11y ago
In my experience with mental health adventures, sleep is absolutely essential. It's difficult to explain, but when my sleep patterns become sporadic or light, my behavior and thought processes become... erratic. The way I internally describe it is as "heady", where my mental state has an almost physical feel that almost matches the feeling of blood rushing to an arm or a leg after standing up. During this time, I can get extended periods of hypomania and isolation. The only fix I've found is to simply get an amount of sleep that makes sense, which makes me think that there's an enormous correlation between mental health and sleep. Edit: For what it's worth, it's also the same feeling I get when I don't take lithium.
alfiedotwtf 11y ago
For me anyway, I find that there's little link between the two. I sleep on average 4.5 hours and (I don't think) it has effected in any way my mental health. The biggest thing for me that completely changes my mood (not world caving in type, but noticable), is amounting external presures like obligation, deadlines, etc - the inescapable. I've learned to minimise these in my life, much to my happiness. YMMV
- stinos 11y ago
  That is easily explained by the theory that is us not just the amount of the sleep that counts, but rather the quality. I can wake up after 5 hours of sleep and be completely refreshed. I can also wake up after 8 hours of bad disrupted sleep due to various reasons and feel like a trainwreck the entire day. Including most symptoms in the article, especially if that happens a couple of nights in row: first and foremost the anger (well, mainly the amount of effort it takes to suppress that is killing me) but also the 'wrong' trains of thought, seeing flashes of things which aren't there etc. All of which can then again be rest by 5 (or more) hours of proper sleep.
  - mafuyu 11y ago
    Quality of sleep is definitely a big factor, but genetics also govern how much sleep an individual needs. Some people just naturally need less sleep than others. Personally, I've found that if I allow myself to sleep and wake whenever I want, I eventually settle to a stable state of 8.5 hrs sleep/night. However, I typically get less than 8.5 hrs/night on weekdays and sleep in on weekends. After keeping track of my sleep, I found that on average, I was still sleeping 8.5 hrs/night every week, and I would sleep in just enough on weekends to hit my quota.
    - dghughes 11y ago
      I think you'd need at least three consistent days of sleep before you could even begin to assess what is your normal amount. Isn't that some sort of biological rule? You couldn't settle into a normal pattern in just one day since all the previous days poor sleep would still be affecting you.
0xcde4c3db 11y ago
I won't dispute the importance of sleep, but what really rubs me the wrong way about this article is how it doesn't really even acknowledge sleep disorders. I'm biased; my life was semi-fucked for a while because it took ~20 years to stumble across a psychiatrist who thought to order a sleep study. But when I was researching sleep disorders, I found a lot of mention that several of them are believed to be hugely underdiagnosed (e.g. there are estimates that only ~20% of sleep apnea in Americans is diagnosed). I wonder how many other people out there are still stumbling along on their fourth or fifth antidepressant when CPAP is what would actually help.
papapra 11y ago
Maybe the mental health conditions are the cause of bad sleep?

135 points by miolini 11y ago

xlayn 11y ago

When you see the suspense/terror movie the Babadook... you could as well be seeing a documentary from the perspective of someone who is sleep deprived. I remember the words of a psychiatrist... whenever someone comes with any problem the first thing they must is sleep.

dreamdu5t 11y ago

This was a terrible article, and did not explain any link to mental illness.

DrScump 11y ago
Did you miss the entire "Sleep disruption in mental illness" section?
- noButSeriously 11y ago
  This is pop-psychology garbage. Pat yourself on the back and feel good about agreeing with something obvious. Drugs are bad, m'kay. Sleep deprivation is bad, m'kay? This is linked to that. Broad sweeping statistics seem to indicate whatever. Someday science will know more, but gosh Mr. Science sure could know a lot more right now. So many millions of numbers, and then there's people who do such and such. We're only beginning to unravel the mysteries of faith. Not much to say about why brain cells die. Not much to say about the specific mechanics of any direct outcome, or why the brain actually needs up to a third of it's time wound down to a state of minimal activity, or what really happens during that downtime. But 99% of all boogey men are sleep deprived. Furthermore here is a glossary of mental illnesses from the hall of fame of DSM V diagnosis, that everyone's sure to recognize, and sleep deprivation can be tied to all of them with delicious weasle words. Yay!
  - DrScump 11y ago
    If you disagree with the content there, fine; I was responding to the above comment that the reference to mental illness wasn't there.

bpchaps 11y ago

In my experience with mental health adventures, sleep is absolutely essential. It's difficult to explain, but when my sleep patterns become sporadic or light, my behavior and thought processes become... erratic. The way I internally describe it is as "heady", where my mental state has an almost physical feel that almost matches the feeling of blood rushing to an arm or a leg after standing up. During this time, I can get extended periods of hypomania and isolation. The only fix I've found is to simply get an amount of sleep that makes sense, which makes me think that there's an enormous correlation between mental health and sleep. Edit: For what it's worth, it's also the same feeling I get when I don't take lithium.

alfiedotwtf 11y ago

For me anyway, I find that there's little link between the two. I sleep on average 4.5 hours and (I don't think) it has effected in any way my mental health. The biggest thing for me that completely changes my mood (not world caving in type, but noticable), is amounting external presures like obligation, deadlines, etc - the inescapable. I've learned to minimise these in my life, much to my happiness. YMMV

stinos 11y ago
That is easily explained by the theory that is us not just the amount of the sleep that counts, but rather the quality. I can wake up after 5 hours of sleep and be completely refreshed. I can also wake up after 8 hours of bad disrupted sleep due to various reasons and feel like a trainwreck the entire day. Including most symptoms in the article, especially if that happens a couple of nights in row: first and foremost the anger (well, mainly the amount of effort it takes to suppress that is killing me) but also the 'wrong' trains of thought, seeing flashes of things which aren't there etc. All of which can then again be rest by 5 (or more) hours of proper sleep.
- mafuyu 11y ago
  Quality of sleep is definitely a big factor, but genetics also govern how much sleep an individual needs. Some people just naturally need less sleep than others. Personally, I've found that if I allow myself to sleep and wake whenever I want, I eventually settle to a stable state of 8.5 hrs sleep/night. However, I typically get less than 8.5 hrs/night on weekdays and sleep in on weekends. After keeping track of my sleep, I found that on average, I was still sleeping 8.5 hrs/night every week, and I would sleep in just enough on weekends to hit my quota.
  - dghughes 11y ago
    I think you'd need at least three consistent days of sleep before you could even begin to assess what is your normal amount. Isn't that some sort of biological rule? You couldn't settle into a normal pattern in just one day since all the previous days poor sleep would still be affecting you.

0xcde4c3db 11y ago

I won't dispute the importance of sleep, but what really rubs me the wrong way about this article is how it doesn't really even acknowledge sleep disorders. I'm biased; my life was semi-fucked for a while because it took ~20 years to stumble across a psychiatrist who thought to order a sleep study. But when I was researching sleep disorders, I found a lot of mention that several of them are believed to be hugely underdiagnosed (e.g. there are estimates that only ~20% of sleep apnea in Americans is diagnosed). I wonder how many other people out there are still stumbling along on their fourth or fifth antidepressant when CPAP is what would actually help.

papapra 11y ago

Maybe the mental health conditions are the cause of bad sleep?