Correlation Between Lack Of REM Sleep And Depression
Introduction
REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep) is one of the stages that a person undergoes while in sleep. The stage is denoted for the rapid movement of the human eyes. This stage was first identified by Kleitman and Aserinsky in the 50s. REM in adults takes about 20% to 25% percent of human sleep (90-120 minutes). During normal human sleep in a night four to five intermittent periods of REM sleep occur. REM sleep is different under different ages, with children spending about 80% percent of their sleep in REM. During this period of sleep the brain activities are similar to those at an awakened state however; the body is usually under paralysis because of atonia. On the other hand, sleep deprivation is a disorder that pertains to sleep, and it results in having little sleep, and this could be either acute or chronic in nature. Sleep deprivation is known to kill experimental lab animals. In humans a chronically sleep deprived state may cause sleepiness during the day, fatigue, weight gain or loss and clumsiness.
Depression in humans is characterized by persistent feelings of anxiety, sadness, hopelessness and general lack of interest in activities that were of interest before the depression. This condition affects the way a person thinks, eats, sleeps and feels. There is a noted complex relationship between sleep deprivation and depressive conditions. It has been noted that depression causes sleep disorder and sleep problems may as well be a contributing cause of depressive disorders.
The relationship between sleep and depressive illness is complex – depression may cause sleep problems and sleep problems may cause or contribute to depressive disorders. For some people, symptoms of depression occur before the onset of sleep problems. For others, sleep problems appear first. Sleep problems and depression may also share risk factors and biological features and the two conditions may respond to some of the same treatment strategies. Sleep problems are also associated with more severe depressive illness. The lack of sleep (insomnia) is a common occurrence among depressed people. According to research conducted by Taylor et.al (n.pag) shows that patients having insomnia have a high chance of getting depression (ten-fold chance), compared to people with regular circadian sleep (National Sleep Foundation, n.pag).
Depressed people suffer an array of sleep deprivation symptoms such difficulties involving sleeping and staying a sleep and daytime sleepiness. Research also shows that three is a high risk of getting depression in people who have problems with getting a sleep and/or maintaining their sleep. According to this research people who had insomnia were found to have great levels of anxiety and depression than the people that did not have insomnia. These people were 9.82 and 17.35 times likely to get depression that is clinically significant and anxiety, respectively. High level insomnia frequency was attributed to increased anxiety and depression. People with both maintenance and onset insomnia had higher levels of depression compared to people with maintenance, mixed or onset insomnia. Conclusively, these results confirm that there exists a close interrelation between sleep deprivation and depression as well as anxiety. This conclusion was reached after a rigorous control of all other potential varying explanations of the correlation between sleep deprivation and depression (Taylor, n.pag).
References
National Sleep Foundation, Sleep and Depression. 2010. Web. 14th August, 2010. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/depression-and-sleep
Taylor, D.J., Reidel, B. W., Durrence, H.H., LIchstein, K. L. and Bush, A. JEpidemiology of Insomnia, Depression and Anxiety. 2005. Web.14th August, 2010 <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=16335332&ordinalpos=9&itool=E
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