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One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

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Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#121
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you claiming that 2-3h of sleep is enough or healthy?

Why don't you try it and see? Some of my best sleeps were after a sleepless night and for only like 1-3 hours, caffeine or other stimulants in the blood be damned Edit: also make sure you have bright blue light during wakeup/morning/day and mellow non-overhead orangey/amber/yellow light (nothing east of yellow) at evening/night. Red 2 hours before bedtime for bonus "points"

Not to be flippant, but that’s called sleep deprivation. I did this daily for 18-24mo straight, sleeping a 3h block early morning (~4:30-7:30) and a 27min nap aligned with my sleep/wake cycle during mid-afternoon. I did this without caffeine, stimulants, sugar, etc. After having more kids I couldn’t keep the daily consistency required and scaled back to 1-3x a week. I spent years convinced that it elevated my coding, insights, etc., and there was a degree of truth to it, as it did mitigate the worst of my ADHD. Then I got medicated and suddenly everything in the world that had always screamed for my attention 24/7 started quieting down a little. It took me another decade or two to break more of the coping mechanisms I’d developed in my late teens for ADHD and dyslexia. I could ramble down several tangents for paragraphs here, but I’ll just throw out my personal note that while there were clear cognitive benefits (note: I’m sidestepping the increasingly clear long term cognitive risks indicated in recent research), the muscular-skeletal costs we’re greater.

As they say, adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#122
post #52

https://www.reddit.com/r/hangovereffect/ This sub-reddit is dedicated to people who've noticed this effect for ADHD and probably depression as well. Drinking alcohol somehow causes the same 'reversal' of symptoms, either motivation or other mood problems. Lots of discussion as to what causes it - and questions/theories on how to reproduce without alcohol. Alcohol causing sleeplessness, or sleep that's not the usual q…

I have ADHD, did never tried it with alcohol, but sleep deprivation works. I used it when working on important projects with deadlines. You kind of feel like in a parallel universe after a couple of a day if it's a interesting subject for you, ADHD gives you hyper focus, and sleep deprivation gives you this energy to push thru. It's like you don't even need the medication. If you combine it with ADHD medications it's like delirium. But anyway it comes all crashing after couple of days and you have to pick yourself up. I did it for import projects, but don't recommend it.

Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#123

You get rid of depression but acquire dementia.

The article actualy says that if it's a routine thing then other problems will start to set in, obviously. They also mention that your probably better off going for a walk or going to the gym. This is just another possible tool that we could use strategicaly, but very rarely, to combat depression or feeling down.

Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#124
post #14

The "morning hormonal" dump that gets offset by not sleeping could easily shift neuro-chemistry. For (sufficiently) depressed people, any perceived shift is likely going to be a improvement. Related, similar studies have postured that nights with occasional stirrups lead to a more rested day, un-intuitively. The variation in sleep requirements within groups may have more obvious evolutionary benefits; the security of…

My entire life, I've been a night owl. I'm prone to depression in the mornings. I prefer to avoid doing anthing in the AM. In the evenings, I can have a lot of get-up-and-go energy and can be positive about a lot of ideas, but when I wake up the next morning, my entire mood has shifted and I'm often quite negative.

Staying up all night (or only getting a few hours of sleep) avoids that mental reset that causes my entire mood to shift.

I wonder if this is related to the phenomenon studied.

Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#125

Queue people blogging about their monthly “sleep fast” for optimized mood and focus.

plenty of people force themselves to stay up all night once in a blue moon for mental health reasons, all without blogging about it.

this runs counter to what i understood, we had allnighters for productivity or bonding among friends. But i never wouldve guessed not sleeping for a night would make you feel better under some circumstances, always figured the health drawbacks would worsen the issue

Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something to it. Also with dissociatives. Something about these substances or practices can help "reset" you like pulling the plug on an electrical device and forcing it to reboot with refreshed state

pushing the system to a point where it flips over to a different operating mode. overheating your phone until it reboots. ctrl+alt+del. it usually feels a little precarious. maybe not for others. but there’s definitely an aspect of futzing with your mortality, with your primary systems. but if it works…

I think there's some shared aspect of "too many background processes running—must reboot in safe mode!". Its also a bit impairing to the point you're not exactly "you" so you have a better chance of viewing things with different eyes which might be all it takes for someone to get to that point where they are aware and able to act on incremental changes in-line with that which appears in such a state

Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#127
I used to love Mondays, I would work hard during the week studying and working, then Friday I would stay up until sunrise with friends drinking or gaming. I kept this up while working in the corporate world and thought "this is what people mean by feeling refreshed"

It wasn't until I met someone who bent me to be on her schedule, early to bed early to rise on the weekends, where I started feeling depressed by the end of the week, getting Sunday scaries, and having late onset insomnia.

Complete anecdata, but I'm going to start practicing this again on Fridays to see what happens.

Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#128
post #52

https://www.reddit.com/r/hangovereffect/ This sub-reddit is dedicated to people who've noticed this effect for ADHD and probably depression as well. Drinking alcohol somehow causes the same 'reversal' of symptoms, either motivation or other mood problems. Lots of discussion as to what causes it - and questions/theories on how to reproduce without alcohol. Alcohol causing sleeplessness, or sleep that's not the usual q…

Shame that I cannot view that without the app

https://old.reddit.com/r/hangovereffect/

Re: One sleepless night can rapidly reverse depression for several days in mice

#130
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I feel like you exactly identified the long term problem in the same paragraph. I learned years ago that any chemical that helps you sleep ensures that you can't sleep without it. I've used everything from thc to Benadryl to lavender and everything in between. It all had the same effects: slowly degrading effectiveness and sleeplessness without it. Pro-tip: find the source of your insomnia. Is it chemical or is it…

Yeah. I’ve tried. My problem is that 3-4 days of no sleep and I’m just about ready to sign off from this life. I’ve managed with 5mg THC pills for years. Never had to increase the dosage. I’ve never ever slept well. But back before kids it was easier to just sleep in if I had to. As best as I can tell, the cause is my adhd or related. My brain will simply. Not. Stop. Racing.

I highly recommend the podcast Sleep With Me. It’s extremely weird and the guy’s voice isn’t exactly “comforting” the way most sleep-inducing things try to be, but give it a few tries.

It’s basically bedtime “stories” that are more like improvised narrative mazes that are just interesting enough to keep your interest (and exhaust your brain) but not interesting or meaningful enough to keep you awake.

I went from laying awake for hours and hours as a general nightly routine to falling asleep reliably in 10-20 minutes. I didn’t even know it was possible to fall asleep that fast.

As a tip: There’s nothing to “get” about the podcast. It’s just a treadmill for the overactive parts of your brain.

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