The Options For Treating Depression Induced Insomnia

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 7:45 | Filled in Health

Sleep remedies often come from unexpected places, and for some reason, certain depression medications actually seem to help with insomnia too. This may be because there’s a connection between depression and insomnia that has often been noticed by doctors. So finding a way to help one may automatically bring some relief for the other. This means that for a person who is suffering from depression, one of the best insomnia cures may in fact be getting the right diagnosis and being put on the correct antidepressant medication.

Depression and sleep disorders are very closely related. In fact, some medical journals have suggested that as many as eighty five percent of depressed patients have insomnia problems that need to be treated. And it’s not just that depression causes insomnia, but insomnia can work in the opposite direction, worsening the depression. Complaints about lack of sleep can often be used to predict the likelihood of a new depressive episode within a year. So finding the best sleep remedies is very important for a person who suffers from depression.

There are certain antidepressant drugs that seem to double up quite well as medications for insomnia. Even someone who isn’t clinically depressed but uses a tranquilizer like Valium for stress will find that it also helps them fall asleep, but such tranquilizers can worsen conditions like sleep apnea.

Many people in the field of natural health methods highly recommend St. John’s Wort as the best of the natural sleep remedies, and it is also frequently touted as a remedy for depression. Although many people will attest to its effectiveness, scientific research has not yet established its efficacy.

When a cycle of chronic insomnia and depression is underway, each feeding off the other, sometimes the person can help break the cycle by altering routines and using other physical means to try to break through the sleeplessness. Some of these sleep remedies might involve having regular bedtime routines, using the bed only for sleep and sex, relaxing and meditating before bedtime, and other behavioral therapies. If these are helping to reduce the insomnia, it’s often possible that antidepressant medication can do the rest, and stop depression and insomnia from egging each other on.

The occasional sleepless night is not really a problem but if it becomes chronic insomnia then you have to do something about it. For example, many people who work an erratic schedule suffer from shift work sleep disorder on a constant basis. Visit the Sleep Remedies site to learn how to overcome the problem.