Sleep, Insomnia, And Depression

Sleep and insomnia are known to be intrinsically linked to one another. Insomnia is widely seen as a possible side effect of depression, with the mood disorder disrupting sleep because of the emotional turmoil it causes. Insomnia has also been found to potentially cause depression if left untreated, with the chemical levels in the body being altered by the lack of sleep. In other words, one has a reputation for leading to the other, and some mental health professionals even find it hard to determine which of the two came first without the patient having a clear idea of it.

There is a school of thought among mental health professionals that contends that insomnia may simply be a side effect of depression, rather than a problem in itself. Waking up early in the morning and being unable to return to a restful state is one of the hallmarks of severe cases of depression, and it is also one of the three major forms of insomnia. Many patients who are depressed also have difficulty falling asleep, even with the general lethargy that the mood disorder causes. This, too, ties in well with the known forms that insomnia can take.
There is also an opposing school of thought that believes insomnia is a separate condition from depression. This is a plausible idea, as there are some cases of people who have insomnia that do not have depression, or did not have it initially. Left untreated, most cases of insomnia eventually develop the mood disorder as a side effect, though some patients were found to develop a generalized anxiety disorder instead. Some studies show that a patient can have insomnia independently of depression for a period as long as five weeks, though it also found that the sleep disorder intensified the symptoms of the mood disorder.