Exploring the Connection Between Sleep and Depression: Practical Tips to Improve Your Mood

In a world where we often have to forego sleep in order to continue working, or to deal with the facts of life, it’s hard to remember how important sleep is. With a lack of sleep, it’s not surprising that more people deal with depression on a regular basis. It’s not exactly surprising that the lack of sleep is also connected to the depression endemic.

Instead of fighting with the issues of sleep and depression and then getting angry or frustrated, here are some tips that are going to help you improve your mood as well as help you get the sleep that you need.

Don’t Fight It, Flow With It

The best piece of advice that you could ever use for dealing with sleep issues and depression is this:

Don’t fight the Sleep loss, flow with the sleep loss.

What this phrase does is change your mindset.  Instead of creating cortisol when angry or upset, you can instead focus on what is going on with your body. 

At this point, you can pay attention to your body and see what it is that you need.  It may be that you need to spend time doing a low impact activity until you’re ready to sleep again. One of the biggest defeaters of depression is changing your mindset. 

Don’t fight the lack of sleep, flow with it.

Sleep Aids

Sleep aids are becoming more and more common because of the issues of insomnia, anxiety, depression, the list goes on. There are over-the-counter methods that you can use such as Unisom, and then there are prescription methods and ways of eating that can also help.

Melatonin

The first thing most people reach for is going to be melatonin. Be careful! Taking melatonin regularly can actually slow down your body’s ability to produce melatonin naturally. This is where other sleep aids and life changes can help your body out.

Turkey

Believe it or not, eating turkey is connected with healthy sleep thanks to L-tryptophan. Tryptophan is a natural substance that occurs in turkey and it actually helps you sleep! Fortunately, turkeys can be found year-round now, and you can often find ground turkey in the meat section of your local grocery store.

Tart Cherry Juice

Something that has also popped up over the recent years, has been the use of juices and mocktails that are designed to help you sleep. Tart cherry juice has magnesium and naturally occurring melatonin which will help your body produce its own melatonin as well as fall into a deep sleep.

Magnesium is known to activate the parasympathetic nervous system which is the part of the body that allows us to relax. 

Prescribed

Don’t forget that your doctor can be your best friend in these types of situations.  If you’re dealing with irregular sleep and depression, it might be time to talk to your doctor about sleep aids that are not over-the-counter. 

One such sleep aid that some people have access to is marijuana. Different types of marijuana are going to have different effects based on what you need. 

This is why it is extremely important to insure that you have the right doctor to help.  Check out Marijuana Doctors in order to see if you qualify for this type of prescription.

Create a Regular Schedule

Whether or not you’re changing a schedule or you’re trying to adapt to a new one, it’s important to remember that you have to be a part of creating that schedule. What I mean by this, is if you are falling asleep at a late hour, you’re probably going to wake up late as well. 

If you’re falling asleep early and not getting enough sleep throughout the night you may need to still wake up at a ” work hour ” such as anywhere between six and eight in the morning (regardless of how much sleep you were able to get). Creating this type of regular schedule is a great way to kickstart your body into forming a regular sleep pattern.

Create Moments of Joy

While this one isn’t something that correlates directly to sleep, it is extremely important for helping your body produce positive hormones that will help your body relax. At any point in the day, make sure that you create moments of joy either through practicing your favorite hobby, going outside, enjoying time with family or pets, or whatever it is that brings you joy.

No matter what situation you are dealing with where depression and sleep are deciding to work against you, there are multiple solutions that can help you get back on the road to recovery. It will take time and it will be difficult but I know you can do it!