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The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation

mosaicscience.com

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Re: The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation

#81

Post by mjburgess »

notjosh wrote: post #80
caseymarquis wrote: post #67

This article confuses depression and bipolar disorder quite a bit. They're inducing mania through sleep deprivation in patients with bipolar disorder going through a period of depression. This is somewhat dangerous, as mania can have severe consequences. The article even states that there's a 95% relapse into depression for those not taking lithium. Only people with BPD take lithium. It's not about the lithium, it's…

Just to clarify: when you say BPD here, do you mean bipolar disorder, or borderline personality disorder? I've only known it as the latter (and a quick Google search agrees), but from context I assume you mean the former?

He means the former. You cannot induce a personality disorder, its a lifetime of trained patterned thinking/action/deficit.

Re: The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation

#82

Post by _0w8t »

uhhyeahdude wrote: post #52
pgt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! I awoke early this morning from a bit of a bender last night and have a similar feeling of mania (the positive, productive kind). At first I attributed it to a GABA rebound, but thinking back, a sleep fast has historically injected a sense of urgency and vigour. I have been fasting intermittently after reading Valter Longo's metabolic oxidation research (the term they used for aging research to get it published)…

Wow, I haven't thought about that GABA rebound in ages. I quit drinking a long time ago, although I had to do it a few times. This is just another data point, but I too remember "increased vigor/urgency" from acute sleep deprivation prior to drinking habitually. I have maintained up to a year on the same food schedule as you describe, and it was nice in a lot of ways. I don't know if I'll ever be quite that lean agai…

I am curious when anxiety happened in your case? For me if I fast for few days the second night (like 28-30 hours without food) is sleepless due to anxiety.

Re: The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation

#84

Post by _0w8t »

gingerlime wrote: post #47
pgt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! I awoke early this morning from a bit of a bender last night and have a similar feeling of mania (the positive, productive kind). At first I attributed it to a GABA rebound, but thinking back, a sleep fast has historically injected a sense of urgency and vigour. I have been fasting intermittently after reading Valter Longo's metabolic oxidation research (the term they used for aging research to get it published)…

I'm also skipping breakfast. Trying to keep at least 16 hours between dinner and lunch. Started nearly a year ago. Generally I feel better, and intend to continue, but: * Somehow I didn't lose much weight. I wasn't particularly overweight to begin with though. Maybe lost 1-2kg over this period(?) * My blood tests showed increase in cholesterol. I was reading about it and it seems common (or not very uncommon). It's s…

Depending on the food people can gain weight with IF. My impression is that with IF it is easier to follow diets to reduce weight, IF alone is somewhat orthogonal to weight management.

Re: The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation

#86

Post by dang »

caseymarquis wrote: post #67

This article confuses depression and bipolar disorder quite a bit. They're inducing mania through sleep deprivation in patients with bipolar disorder going through a period of depression. This is somewhat dangerous, as mania can have severe consequences. The article even states that there's a 95% relapse into depression for those not taking lithium. Only people with BPD take lithium. It's not about the lithium, it's…

Please don't use uppercase for emphasis on HN. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Re: The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation

#87

Post by _delirium »

Shikadi wrote: post #78
caseymarquis wrote: post #67

This article confuses depression and bipolar disorder quite a bit. They're inducing mania through sleep deprivation in patients with bipolar disorder going through a period of depression. This is somewhat dangerous, as mania can have severe consequences. The article even states that there's a 95% relapse into depression for those not taking lithium. Only people with BPD take lithium. It's not about the lithium, it's…

It's probably worth noting that bipolar disorder and manic depression are the same condition. In other words, bipolar disorder is a form of depression, though they could have been more clear and said "other forms of depression" in certain places.

In recent writing it's usually seen as more clear to treat them as distinct (though related) disorders rather than bipolar being a subset of depression, although that usage is still common. The ICD, for example, classifies "Bipolar affective disorder" (F31) and "Recurrent depressive disorder" (F33) as two distinct disorders under the parent category "Mood [affective] disorders".

Re: The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation

#89

Post by eezurr »

uhhyeahdude wrote: post #17

How very odd for me to find this on HN this evening. I'm on "day 2" of my once a week sleep fast, which means things are a bit surreal to begin with. For each of the last seven weeks, I stay awake from Thursday morning until my "regular" bedtime hour Friday evening. I do this because it actually seems to be an effective way to avoid falling into a hole of anhedonia and "stuck-ness." I am hip to many of the cognitive…

Hey there, I also made an account to share my experience and success (only a few weeks in)

I've been struggling with depression all my life, which makes me less productive, which makes me more depressed ("stuck"). I've found my depression is highly correlated with productivity levels.

Try this at your own risk:

I've started taking Adderall twice a week (1/8th of a 30mg extended release), on Tuesdays and Fridays. That gives me 24 hours of significant productive output, followed by another 24 hours of above average productive output. On the "Off" days, I am significantly less depressed and my productivity is at a normal level (supplemented by morning coffee and occasionally 2 mg nicorette).

I also take Magnesium Glycinate 400mg twice a day, and Zinc 30 Orotate once a day, which has slightly decreased my depression (stronger affect on anxiety).

I would not advise taking Adderall more than that, as you risk increasing your tolerance (I have a friend who has ADHD and is finishing up their PhD in molecular biology who recommended this dosing frequency). EDIT: and its good to go back to being normal human. Adderall kind of makes you more robotic/logical.

It's important to have a plan when you take take Adderall. Usually, whatever you are doing before you dose is what you will focus on for most of the day. If you don't have a plan, you could end up browsing the internet at 100K words per hour, or masturbating for long stretches.

Re: The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation

#90

Post by wpietri »

lkrubner wrote: post #61

For me, the big shock has always been the extent to which sleep can kill a fantastic streak of productivity. I sometimes have weeks of incredible energy, where I work 12 or even 14 hours every day, and I do my best work, and I have deep insights, and invent new products and new kinds of software. And generally, over the course of a week or two, I become more productive each day. And finally I have a day when I am on…

Interesting! If I have a period of sleep deprivation followed by a night of catch-up sleep, I'm often always slow and groggy that day. It seems worse if I sleep late rather than going to bed early. I mainly fight this by having a pretty regular sleep schedule and avoiding significant sleep debt.
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