How has depression affected your sleep habit?

I toss and turn all night to the point where I want to cry, and when I do crash I sleep like a rock and can't wake up right. To cap it all I sleep but don't rest so I'm really tired most of the day.

I work nights; I worked last night and I'm still up. Depression has a way of taking away my sleep. I want sleep. I crave sleep. I yearn for sleep. And, yet, it still eludes me. I try my best to put aside the worries and issues of my work night. But still, they intrude on my sleep. I'm exhausted but extremely alert for someone who has just completed a 12 hour shift. By the time I have finally decompressed from my job it's too late to obtain much sleep. I wish I could find something that would work for me. I will keep trying to find a solution for this occurrence.❤️

When I went to high school especially in my last few years I went to sleep late. I went to sleep at around 1 or 1:30 in the morning and I had to get up at 6. This was related to me being held back one year and feeling like a total failure and thus not being able to sleep. But also more importantly around that time I started getting panic attacks during class and idk staying up until late was in my thoughts a way to avoid starting a new day and having to face those panic attacks again. Right now I have days where I try to go to sleep early around 10 or 11 PM but like in high school sometimes it happens that I go to sleep at 2 or even 3 in the morning. Lately I again have these feelings of failure and so I go to sleep late.

I am suffering from insomnia for more than 13 years... I only sleep 4 hours a day... Sometimes I can handle it but sometimes it drives me crazy... I become irritable and nervous... It became worth after pregnancy I thought I would have hurted my baby who deprived me from sleeping for months but thanks good I have overcomed this feeling

@River

Depression has affected my sleeping in that almost every time I sleep, I have bad dreams or nightmares. Sleep paralysis is also fairly common for me to have as well. Oftentimes I wake up, gasping for breath and feeling my heart pounding and hands shaking. It’s very rare for me to have decent sleep, of which in my dictionary includes not remembering my dreams, having good dreams or at least ones that don’t make me feel negative emotions, and having a “death-like” sleep.

Overall, as a result, I tend to either sleep too much from how tired I am by not having slept well, or I sleep too little. It’s gotten better in the past few months, but it’s still an everyday battle for me. ♥️

@River

I developed insomnia because of depression. The doctor gave me medicines for 2 weeks to help me sleep. But, after that, I started recovering slowly. that is why I always suggest that good sleep is a medicine for depression.

Sleep; the longer I think about this seemingly simple question is the more I find it hilarious.

First I couldn't sleep because there was always so much to do. And the thought of taking any type of rest before it was done was absurd.

Then I desperately needed the rest. My body was burning out. And it just wouldn't come. So I'd force my body to shut down. Smoke. Drink. Anything to force my mind to keep quiet and my heart to slow. Anything for a reset.

But then I couldn't get up. I'd sleep all day because it was the one time I'd have some sense of peace. All I wanted was peace. Naturally life must go on, I must continue to act normal so the sleep turned to short naps. Frequent waking in the night's and early morning hours.

Years later here I am. Struggling to fall asleep, up until 6am sometimes. And when I do it's no longer a peaceful sleep. It's fearful. Fearing that I'll have to be up soon to face any agonizing day of anxiety, and sadness, and tears, and frustration, and loneliness. And the cycle continues. Over and over and over again. Half the time I don't know what day it was, when my last meal was, when I last showered.

Sleep. Oh how depression can really mess it up.