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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

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Its def not a lifestyle, I don't feel like I made that super obvious. I'm talking about a once in a blue moon type deal where you need a hard reset. Sorta like how most people rarely turn off their phones, things get fucky with it eventually, and it needs a hard reset or reboot. Don't get too hung up on the metaphors, but I've experienced it working and I'm not exactly an n=1

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

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently was forced off of SSRIs after nearly ten years because I lost my psychiatrist and couldn't get a new one because the waitlists were ridiculous. After 10 years on them, the next 6 months were absolute hell (i legit thought at one point I might go full Joaquin Phoenix in Joker) but I made it through, no small part thanks to my wonderful amazing wife. Rebound depression have been an issue - though in general…

Just a side note for anyone reading: you can get an SSRI prescription from your GP (general practitioner i.e. normal doctor) you don’t need to go through a psychiatrist. This is especially true if you are at risk for withdrawal, they will want to prevent that.

any medical doctor of any specialization can legally prescribe anything. that doesn't make it a good idea. a piece of supporting evidence is that the doctor's malpractice insurance may not cover any "cowboy" prescribing tendencies.

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

#133

Whenever I feel down, I binge watch something usually late into nights and I feel better next day. I wonder if it's due to the lack of sleep.

Same for me. I don’t feel stress in the typical way, in fact for years I don’t think I got stressed. My wife eventually correlated me “checking out” for a few evenings in a row and smashing through a TV series or two as my stress relief valve. To me I just thought I wanted to watch TV, to her she noticed it always happened when events around me would be making other people “be stressed out”.

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

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a side note for anyone reading: you can get an SSRI prescription from your GP (general practitioner i.e. normal doctor) you don’t need to go through a psychiatrist. This is especially true if you are at risk for withdrawal, they will want to prevent that.

any medical doctor of any specialization can legally prescribe anything. that doesn't make it a good idea. a piece of supporting evidence is that the doctor's malpractice insurance may not cover any "cowboy" prescribing tendencies.

GPs routinely prescribe SSRIs. Even pediatricians. At least in the US.

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

#135
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 used to have the same sleep problem (head won't stop racing), and mindfulness exercises throughout the day have greatly improved things for me. In a way it feels like the ability to turn it down for a time, long enough to get so tired it doesn't start back up again.

One trick I found myself is to visualise things in the noise from your closed eyes. Try to interpret something you can vaguely see, and then try to visualise it. This imposes a kind of clear image for a short duration for me, from which I try to see and visualise something else in there and so on, kind of like a visual association chain. That really gets me sleepy after a couple of minutes!

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

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My anxiety now is that using THC to sleep will cause issues long term. But without it I literally cannot get to sleep anymore. Edit: I regret pulling focus off parent comment and OP, but also deeply appreciate everyone’s comments.

I had a period when I used THC (edibles) for sleep every night. This was one of the worst things I have ever done to myself. At first, you don't notice much side effects, but slowly it creeps up on you. It makes you depressed, depletes of any motivation, gives brain fog and you may just feel weird over all. When I quit I was amazed by how much better I started feeling and by how much my cognitive function improved. I…

~10 years from now we’re going to have better data on chronic THC consumption and after being a heavy user I’m pretty confident it’s going to shock a lot of people with negative externalities.

Tip for getting off weed - start by lowering the damn dosage. A lot of commonly used products are the equivalent of a triple shot. And folks do it daily.

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

#137

Weird, whenever I pull an all nighter my mood is usually noticeably depressed for the following two days. I also used to be a bit of an insomniac, and one sleepless night could easily throw off my circadian rhythm, creating all sorts of extra anxiety, which translates into demand avoidance, stress and furthering depression.

This is like me too. I'm normally not depressed, but every time sleep is affected, it throws me off and leads me down to viewing the world negatively.

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

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 layi…

This sounds right down my alley!

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

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My anxiety now is that using THC to sleep will cause issues long term. But without it I literally cannot get to sleep anymore. Edit: I regret pulling focus off parent comment and OP, but also deeply appreciate everyone’s comments.

I had a period when I used THC (edibles) for sleep every night. This was one of the worst things I have ever done to myself. At first, you don't notice much side effects, but slowly it creeps up on you. It makes you depressed, depletes of any motivation, gives brain fog and you may just feel weird over all. When I quit I was amazed by how much better I started feeling and by how much my cognitive function improved. I…

>It makes you depressed, depletes of any motivation, gives brain fog and you may just feel weird over all

YMMV. That's me after a sleepless night.

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