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Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

westernsydney.edu.au

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Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#91

Post by sp3000 »

brianmcc wrote: post #19

I intuitively agree that optimal sleep and exercise and diet and screen time probably make a difference to wellbeing, but am I alone in thinking that trying to determine a "link" between these things is lazy, easy, obvious and just wholly inadequate? We want to know, definitively, what are causes and effects . I appreciate that's hard. But why waste so much time and money just trying to establish "links" which are fu…

Here is a cause and effect: Optimal neurotransmitter function highly depends on sleep quality and quantity (and you can further the connection to movement and nutrition as well). Sub-optimal neurotransmitter function can lead to sub-clinical or clinical depression.

"Studies have shown that NREM sleep is important for turning off the norepinephrine, serotonin and histamine neurotransmitters, which in turn allows their receptors to “rest” and regain sensitivity [13]. This allows norepinephrine, serotonin and histamine to be more effective at naturally produced levels."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4651462/

Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#92

Post by brudgers »

johnfn wrote: post #85
brudgers wrote: post #71

Depression is not a lifestyle choice. Our eating, exercise, sleep, etc. are habits developed over a lifetime. Chronic health issues, sexual abuse, traumatic death of a loved one, and bad luck are what to avoid. And of course some formulations of brain chemistry. Casting depression as a lifestyle issue is a step backward. Mental health is already stigmatized far too much. Depression is not a moral failing of will powe…

I think this is a little too one-sided. Yes, there is a group of people who have depression due to factors outside of their control, and we should all be cognizant of that. But that doesn't mean that literally every person who's depressed falls into that group. There's another group of people who are depressed due to factors at least somewhat within their control.

The assertion that people suffering depression can be divided into those suffering due to factors beyond their control and those suffering by choice is not supported by the article. People with a mental illness often are able to manage their symptoms. But the symptoms are not the cause of their mental illness. A schizophrenic is not schizophrenic because they choose not to take a prescribed medication that mitigates the visible symptoms of schizophrenia.

An unhealthy lifestyle is a common symptom of depression. Lots of screen time, poor diet, low quality sleep, and inertia are factors in clinical diagnosis of depression. They are things that might lead a person to decide someone might be depressed.

Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#93

Post by dcolkitt »

dkersten wrote: post #32

I love how a lot of commenters are redefining “screen time” to suit their opinions or otherwise rationalise their screen time, rather than taking the study as is. I mean, sure, perhaps different types of screen time have different impact and this requires further study, but using anecdotes and opinions isn’t that.

That's a fair point, but remember that the map is not the territory.

We've come up with the semantic concept of "screen time" that bundles together a lot of disparate activities, because it seems intuitively and linguistically compelling. But imagine an alternate universe where the equivalent term "screen time" also included origami for some reason. The study would reach almost exactly the same conclusions, because such a small fraction of people engage in origami relative to binge TV watching. That doesn't mean that origami is actually as unhealthy as binge TV watching. The map is not the territory.

Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#94

Post by W4ldi »

brudgers wrote: post #71

Depression is not a lifestyle choice. Our eating, exercise, sleep, etc. are habits developed over a lifetime. Chronic health issues, sexual abuse, traumatic death of a loved one, and bad luck are what to avoid. And of course some formulations of brain chemistry. Casting depression as a lifestyle issue is a step backward. Mental health is already stigmatized far too much. Depression is not a moral failing of will powe…

The more I think about this comment, the more it just seems so wrong. Yes, depression is not always caused by lifestyle, but it definitely can be. What you are saying just sounds like an excuse for taking the easy path. If trying to change your lifestyle to fix your mental health is a bad thing, what is your counter suggestion? Taking pills that make you addicted, not solve the problem and make everything worse if you stop taking them?

I know there are cases, where medication is inevitable and is the only option. But this is a minority. The vast majority of mental health issues we have today, are caused by lack of virtue and values, choice of diet, sleep and lack of social interactions.

Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#95

Post by ummonk »

Longitudinal study is better, but still, the causation likely goes both ways. Decreased sleep, worse diet, and more screentime are all things that happen due to getting increasingly depressed. They also drive depression (at least decreased sleep and worse diet do, and screentime likely does to the extent it is a proxy for lack of sunlight and human interaction).

Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#96

Post by slx26 »

waterhouse wrote: post #57
mrweasel wrote: post #39

That could help explain why it seems like 50% of users on Reddit and Imgur suffer from depression. They’re (partly) depressed because they spend to much time the media where they write about being depressed.

The causality could also go the other way. The most visible users will be those who post a lot. And those who are depressed because their life sucks and they don't have much valuable stuff to do, or those who aren't doing much valuable stuff because their depression makes it too hard, are likely to have a lot of time during which posting on the site seems like the best available activity. It seems really difficult to…

Yes, the title is very misleading. It's very important to educate people about this.

Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#97

Post by dkersten »

bananabiscuit wrote: post #36
dkersten wrote: post #32

I love how a lot of commenters are redefining “screen time” to suit their opinions or otherwise rationalise their screen time, rather than taking the study as is. I mean, sure, perhaps different types of screen time have different impact and this requires further study, but using anecdotes and opinions isn’t that.

Isn’t it pretty obvious not all screen time is the same? If it was then you could do these studies with people staring at simple glowing white rectangles and get identical results.

My comment wasn't meant to agree or disagree with these statements, just to comment on how I find it interesting that people are making assumptions or defining screen time to suit their own opinions.

As for whether its obvious: maybe, but there are many cases where something seems obvious (certainly to laypeople in the subject) but that are actually flat out wrong.

So, as someone who hasn't studied these things, I say, yes, it seems obvious, but just because I think its obvious, doesn't necessarily mean its true.

Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#98

Post by dkersten »

technofiend wrote: post #49
dkersten wrote: post #32

I love how a lot of commenters are redefining “screen time” to suit their opinions or otherwise rationalise their screen time, rather than taking the study as is. I mean, sure, perhaps different types of screen time have different impact and this requires further study, but using anecdotes and opinions isn’t that.

In my humble opinion passive consumption of media is entirely different from engaging in a creative process. Perhaps it's just projection on my part but surfing the web for hours reading Reddit, Hacker News and YouTube is entirely different than banging out some new chapters for your NaNoWriMo novel, updating a blog or making a github commit.

I actually agree. My point was just that our opinions are just that: opinions. We did not actually study it in a controlled scientific way.

Re: Less screen time and more sleep critical for preventing depression

#100

Post by brudgers »

W4ldi wrote: post #94
brudgers wrote: post #71

Depression is not a lifestyle choice. Our eating, exercise, sleep, etc. are habits developed over a lifetime. Chronic health issues, sexual abuse, traumatic death of a loved one, and bad luck are what to avoid. And of course some formulations of brain chemistry. Casting depression as a lifestyle issue is a step backward. Mental health is already stigmatized far too much. Depression is not a moral failing of will powe…

The more I think about this comment, the more it just seems so wrong. Yes, depression is not always caused by lifestyle, but it definitely can be. What you are saying just sounds like an excuse for taking the easy path. If trying to change your lifestyle to fix your mental health is a bad thing, what is your counter suggestion? Taking pills that make you addicted, not solve the problem and make everything worse if yo…

An alternative which has shown substantial empirical success is clinical treatment with a qualified psychotherapist experienced in the treatment of depression through the application of clinical treatment in a clinical setting. Such treatment may or may not involve the use of pharmaceutical and/or alternative medicines and/or medical and alternative treatments.

Incidentally, this is the context from which the study draws validity and makes rational sense to conduct. Without the clinical context depression is not a medical diagnosis.

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