Can Insomnia Cause Depression?

Depression and insomnia

Insomnia can be not only one of depression symptoms, but one of its causes. If you cannot sleep, you loose pleasure in life and become anxious. At the same time, sound sleep improves outlook on life and empowers you. As it is known, anxiety may result in depression. That is why they say depression and insomnia go hand-in-hand. So, insomnia is considered to be a warning sign and its worsening can signal you are becoming depressed.

Relationship of depression and insomnia is more serious than cause and effect. Depressed people suffering from insomnia are at the higher risk of recurring mental depression than those ones who do not have problems with sleep. If you cannot sleep and feel depressed because of it, you are not alone. People suffering from chronic insomnia often complain about doldrums. In accordance with researches, about 80% of people suffering from depression have troubled sleep and only 15% of them sleep too much.

Of course, relationship between depression and insomnia is not simple. You should understand they are two overlapping medical conditions. Insomnia is more than a simple symptom of mental disorder. That is why your mood and sleep quality can be significantly improved, if depression and insomnia are treated simultaneously.

Treatment of depression and insomnia

According to the latest researches, that helped to improve depression treatment strategies, treatment of sleep problems eases symptoms of depression and prevents its relapses. At the same time, people, suffering both from depression and insomnia, who are treated with a sleep medication and antidepressants simultaneously, feel much better than those ones treated only with depression pills.

People often ask what works better – therapy or medication. It is difficult to say, because each way of treatment has its advantages and disadvantages. As for insomnia, medication is often prescribed to the patients who are very anxious about their problems with sleep. It helps to improve sleep quickly, but symptoms of disorder can recur. On the other hand, cognitive behavioural therapy needs more time, but its benefits are longer lasting. Cognitive behavioural therapy encourages more realistic and positive thoughts about sleep, and helps patients to replace pessimistic thoughts with positive ones.

As troubled sleep can result in depression, insomnia can become its integral part. Such type of mental disorder is often called insomnia depression. In such cases insomnia is treated with antidepressants. It is known that about 90% of people suffering from mental disorder complain about insomnia. Serotonin-nor-epinephrine re-uptake inhibitors or antidepressants having 5-HT2 blocking properties (for example, methadone or mirtazapine) are prescribed such patients both for treatment of depression and insomnia.

One more way of depression and insomnia treatment is aromatherapy. Such volatile oils as lavender oil, frankincense oil, jasmine oil, chamomile oil, citrus oil, rose oil, Melissa and sandal oils are very useful for sound sleep.

Sweet almond and sunflower oils are usually used as carrier oils. Combination of geranium oil, chamomile oil and carrier oils can help to improve your sleep. Dosage for children is 25 ml of carrier oil and 3-4 drops of volatile oil. Dosage for adults is 25ml of carrier oil combined with 7-8 drops of volatile oil.