Interesting – research on insomnia & depression

I’ve written about depression and insomnia before.  Also that I can induce depression symptoms by shorting myself on sleep.

Now the NIMH is studying interactions between depression and insomnia. 

Doctors have long considered poor sleep to be a symptom of depression that would clear up with treatments, said Rachel Manber, a professor in the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at Stanford, whose 2008 pilot trial of insomnia therapy provided the rationale for larger studies. “But we now know that’s not the case,” she said. “The relationship is bidirectional — that insomnia can precede the depression.”

Full-blown insomnia is more serious than the sleep problems most people occasionally have. To qualify for a diagnosis, people must have endured at least a month of chronic sleep loss that has caused problems at work, at home or in important relationships. Several studies now suggest that developing insomnia doubles a person’s risk of later becoming depressed — the sleep problem preceding the mood disorder, rather than the other way around.

I doubt there’s a magic bullet here, but it is interesting and encouraging to see this sort of research.  (And on a more humorous note, check out Candorville.)