Does Depression Make You Tired?

This is a common question to which the answer is depression can not only make you feel tired but exhausted.

Why?

• Depressed people dream up to 3 times as much as non-depressed people
• The brain attempts to clear unfilled negative expectations and it does this through dreams.  These are the unsolved worries you think about during the day. If you don’t solve those worries, the brain has to find a way to do this and it does it through dreaming.
• More time is spent in dream sleep (REM = Rapid Eye Movement)
• When this happens the brain uses all the hormonal and neurological systems that would be used in real activity and it exhausts these systems.
• Too much REM sleeps exhausts you at the very least makes you feel tired

Depressed people need to reduce their time in REM sleep

• reduce the amount of emotional introspection particularly before sleep
• use relaxation – guided meditation, self hypnosis before sleep will help.

Just the simple act of distracting from worries and emotions by listening to a hypnosis audio, guided visualisation audio or using meditation before bed can be a great help to induce a better sleep.

If you are not used to this method, try out different audios, don’t beat yourself up if you are distracted by your thoughts, just let them come and go. Sometimes all it takes is a little practice to get used to it.  These methods can bring huge benefits in all areas of life.  There are many sites on the internet that you can buy reasonably priced downloads.

Many suggested treatments for illness/disease include these methods.  They give the mind and body a much-needed rest.