As a "healthy" person, if I'm feeling overwhelmed or (situationally) depressed I find that I almost always feel better in the morning after a long sleep. It may recur as the day wears on, but sleep is extremely helpful. That makes sense if people with depression experience the opposite effect.

What I wonder is if those sleep-deprived individuals are experiencing a semi-manic state. I once had severe insomnia for a period of two weeks, and during that time I slept maybe 0-3 hours per night (typically zero). Early on I experienced manic effects. Toward the end, I felt like I was going completely nuts.

As the article says, sleep deprivation has been used to treat depression for years. It has been used in inpatient care because it often has immediate short term effects and provides relief before the medication kicks in. The attempt to use chronotherapy as a long term treatment seems to be a new development.

The problem with depression is that it easily becomes "trashbin diagnosis" trough diagnosis of exclusion. Depression symptoms are common with many physical and mental problems. After other options are excluded, what is left is depression diagnosis.

It's possible that there are people suffering from depression where the root cause is malfunctioning circadian system. This research direction might end up with real cure for them. For others suffering from clinical depression chronotherapy might ease the symptoms and help with other treatments.

"once you go to sleep and catch up on those missed hours of sleep, you’ll have a 95% chance of relapse."

Unless you plan on spending the rest of your life severely sleep deprived, this doesn't seem like a great solution.

staying awake for extended periods leads to a manic state. sure, it beats depression, but it's not necessarily a good way to persist either.

indeed, a blurb in the article mentions this, only once...

> Particularly for anyone who has bipolar disorder, there’s a risk of it triggering a switch into mania – although in his experience, the risk is smaller than that posed by taking antidepressants.

i don't think that's necessarily true only for those with bipolar disorder though, anyone sleep deprived long enough will end up in a manic state. perhaps some are more susceptible to it than others, or others may be more adept at navigating that headspace, than many.

i find some of my most productive hours are late at night, after i've been awake for a while... for one there are less distractions from everyone else, but primarily, it's much easier to get into that "zone" when the brain is tired. or maybe it's just a honing of focus over time, and sleep resets that ability and all the short-term memory that has been built up during the day. shrug

Interesting. For me being sleep deprived is the number one way to get depression. Especially if it goes on for a few days.

This seems like really bad advice on several fronts. For one, sleep deprivation has severe negative side-effects and is implicated in long term decline of overall health. For another, this is a big risk for people with bipolar, many of whom are unaware of that fact and may think they only have depression. Aggressive sleep deprivation can trigger a psychotic break in people who are susceptible, which is a shockingly high percentage of the population, especially along with other factors like stress and certain kinds of (very common) drug use. That's something you generally want to avoid at all costs.

I've felt that semi-manic state you're referencing when I haven't been sleeping. Several nights lately I've been in bed awake until 5:00 or so when I doze off (only to get up at 6 for work). In these situations, I've felt great considering my lack of sleep. In the long run, lack of sleep (for me) results in depression.

I'm probably not normal. I take three antidepressants and an anxiolytic.

Not depression, but I notice that I have less social anxiety when sleep deprived.

What about people who have depression and get insomnia because of it?

Strange, I've always found that sleep deprivation decreases my ability to handle stress, increasing the effect of depression. Even now that I'm stable, it sends me into a blue funk the next day or the day after.

IME, not going to sleep causes depression.

Hmm what could people do while trying to stay awake? I know how about some light exercise dancing to some music you enjoy or even don't enjoy but rather go out just to learn about it.

Maybe there are other anti-depression techniques out there as well?

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/14/how-a-party-drug-could-becom...

I've often wonder what the world record for a human is. Are their competitions? Like can you be the best at staying awake for > 2 weeks?

Yeah, except the effect only lasts past the next good night's sleep for 5% of patients.

And I can't speak for about anyone else, but having experienced moderate depression, I'd rather be depressed than chronically sleep deprived.

Not sleeping induces a state of mania - temporary frenzied relation. So if you're depressed, you'll temporarily feel better the next day, but the relapse comes soon after.

it works but not when it becomes routine IMO. pulling 1 or 2 all nighters in a row, gives kind of a once in a while snap-out of it effect. I have no proof other than this worked for me in practice only in the decade and half that I suffered from it.

Sleep deprivation increases serotonin and dopamine directly. Of course it helps with depression.