[Thimble]

Hi all....everything I have read says that you eat more when you are sleep deprived, are more anxious, are more depressed, are more emotional....and yet when I try to get more sleep I feel absolutely physically horrible when I do finally get up, and my anxiety is through the roof worrying about all the time I "wasted" sleeping.

For example, I usually get about 4 hours of sleep - from about 2:30 - 6:30 am but if I try to sleep longer and stay in bed until noon....then I am up to 4:30 - 5:00 am the next day - and the following day I will be up to 3:30 am or so as well....ie I immediately deplete the "extra" hours of sleep I got. It is like my body says hey, what is this? You added more sleep and I didn't want it so I will keep you awake longer to compensate and get you back in that sleep deprived mode again.

Does this sound unusual? I don't know if my depression and anxiety and eating habits would be better if I got more sleep, because every time I try, I feel hung over and my body rebels by keeping me up even later to make up for it.

[IceCreamKid]

Originally Posted by Thimble

Hi all....everything I have read says that you eat more when you are sleep deprived, are more anxious, are more depressed, are more emotional....and yet when I try to get more sleep I feel absolutely physically horrible when I do finally get up, and my anxiety is through the roof worrying about all the time I "wasted" sleeping.

For example, I usually get about 4 hours of sleep - from about 2:30 - 6:30 am but if I try to sleep longer and stay in bed until noon....then I am up to 4:30 - 5:00 am the next day - and the following day I will be up to 3:30 am or so as well....ie I immediately deplete the "extra" hours of sleep I got. It is like my body says hey, what is this? You added more sleep and I didn't want it so I will keep you awake longer to compensate and get you back in that sleep deprived mode again.

Does this sound unusual? I don't know if my depression and anxiety and eating habits would be better if I got more sleep, because every time I try, I feel hung over and my body rebels by keeping me up even later to make up for it.

I feel better when I get enough sleep; and getting enough sleep helps my depression. But too much sleep makes me feel worse, so maybe there is some sort of balancing act that is involved with depression. From your description you are see-sawing between too little and maybe too much. Are you getting enough exercise? And do you wake up to an alarm? I would try setting an alarm, make your attempts in hour increments (one more hour of sleep a day) aiming for more sleep during hours of darkness, and getting up earlier in the day and getting enough real physical activity during the day to really "wake you up" during the hours you are awake. I think my anti-depressant gives me insomnia; my doctor gave me a prescription for sleeping pills, and while they put me to sleep they also tend to keep me asleep and I have to get up early, so I don't always take them. Developing a schedule that includes a balance of activity and sleep during darkness is probably the best solution -- and if you have to, enlist the doctor to help you.

[slinks]

Maybe try just sleeping an hour or two later instead of till noon and see if that makes any changes... I honestly don't know, but maybe you do end up with too much sleep on those days, but still aren't getting quite enough on the days you only get the four hours!